Healthcare Law
Angus Moon KC and Cecily White succeed in the Supreme Court in the seminal case on the law of illegality in clinical negligence cases and in the law of tort. Read about Henderson -v- Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust here.
“Cecily is very thorough and conscientious – a strong advocate.”
Chambers & Partners 2023
experience & Expertise
Cecily’s recent healthcare cases include:
- Brook House Inquiry [2022-2023]
Appearing on behalf of the Practice Plus Group which provides healthcare services at the Gatwick Immigration Removal Centre. The Brook House Inquiry, which is due to report in 2023, examined the circumstances surrounding the mistreatment of detainees at Gatwick IRC as shown in the BBC Panorama programme, Undercover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets, which aired on 4 September 2017. See here. - Cojanu v Essex Partnership University NHS Trust [2022] EWHC 197 (QB)
Appearing for the Trust in a clinical negligence claim brought by a prisoner who injured his hand in the course of attempting to murder his wife, bringing defences of illegality and fundamental dishonesty. - Henderson v Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust [2020] UKSC 43.
Acting for the successful NHS Trust (led by Angus Moon KC) resisting a claim brought by a woman who stabbed her mother to death following mental health treatment. The claim was defeated because the Supreme Court accepted that it was barred by the doctrine of illegality. See here.
Cecily advises and acts in healthcare cases involving novel or complex points of law such as whether a duty of care is owed, what informed consent involves, or whether a potential defence is available.
She has experience of clinical claims involving cosmetic surgery, delays in diagnosis and misdiagnosis, orthopaedic and gastrointestinal injuries, medication errors, fertility treatment, neonatal injury and still birth, fatal accidents and psychiatric illness. She is familiar with complex issues of liability and causation and advising on Part 36 offers.
Other healthcare work has included cerebral palsy claims on behalf of claimants and defendants (led by Angus Moon KC and John de Bono KC).
Cecily has advised Trusts on discrete legal questions ranging from privilege and information sharing to indemnity and clinical commissioning under the Health & Social Care Act 2012.
Relatedly Cecily has acted on behalf of families, hospital trusts and medical professionals in inquests, disciplinary proceedings and Court of Protection cases where the standard of medical treatment is in issue.