James McConnell KC has a practice that mainly focusses on clinical negligence. He is also frequently instructed in inquiries with a medical element. He acts for pursuers and defenders in roughly equal proportions. He is Band 1 ranked by Chambers and Partners in Clinical Negligence and by the Legal 500 in Personal Injury and Medical Negligence.
Jamie Dawson KC called to the Bar in 2004 and took silk in 2020. He has a wide ranging civil practice involving both appearance and advisory work. He has experience of appearing in both the Inner and Outer House of the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary and sheriff courts as well as tribunals and public inquiries. The mainstay of his practice is medical and dental negligence cases (pursuer and defender) and public inquiries. He also works in the field of personal injury (pursuer and defender) and defamation and handles insurance and commercial disputes, trust and property cases.
Jamie was instructed as lead Counsel on behalf of the Scottish infected and affected core participants in the UK’s largest ever public inquiry at that time, the Infected Blood Inquiry. The final report was published in May 2024.
Jamie was appointed to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry legal team. He, along with 10 other KC’s, support Hugo Keith KC, Lead Counsel to the Inquiry, and Martin Smith, Solicitor to the Inquiry, with the preparation and delivery of the Inquiry’s investigative work. He lead Module 2A, Core UK decision-making and political governance – Scotland.
As a junior Counsel, he was recommended in legal directories for his expertise in clinical negligence and personal injury work for several years. Amongst the comments on his practice were the following:
• “Fantastic at dealing with complex medical evidence and technical details.” (Legal 500 (2020), personal injury and clinical negligence work, Band 1)
• “A committed advocate who has vast experience defending clinical negligence cases. His wide-ranging caseload spans such circumstances as birth injuries, dental malpractice and fatal accidents. He also has experience in mental health and cancer diagnosis cases.
Strengths: “He is very good at getting into the details in clinical negligence cases.”(Chambers & Partners (2020), clinical negligence work)
• Strengths: “He is very good at picking up on things and running with them.” “I would describe him as very proactive. He was very good in the case I was on and made a very positive contribution to its conclusion.” (Chambers & Partners (2017), personal injury work)
• “He’s good, thorough and professional.” (Chambers & Partners (2016), clinical negligence work)
• “He is extremely impressive and very helpful too.” (Chambers & Partners (2016), personal injury work)
• Expertise: “He’s very thorough and goes into a lot of depth; his advocacy skills are very good.” (Chambers & Partners (2014), personal injury work)
Acting for both pursuers and defenders in a wide range of personal injury litigation, Jenny Nicholson-White has a particular interest and expertise in clinical negligence and is ranked as leading junior by both Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 in personal injury and clinical negligence.
Her recent work includes complex cases involving brain injury in road traffic accidents, birth injury cases including cerebral palsy, amputations as a result of alleged clinical negligence, defending GPs in cases involving allegedly negligent loss of sight in a young man and loss of hearing in a young woman respectively, acting for families seeking damages for the loss of a loved one due to alleged negligence, acting for insurers to defend claims under the Damages (Scotland) Act 2011, representing dentists before Interim Orders Committees in advance of Fitness to Practice Hearings, acting for families in secondary victim claims arising out of alleged clinical negligence, representing nurses as instructed for the RCN, representing the SPS and Forestry and Land Scotland as instructed by the Scottish Government and acting for health boards in defence of various allegations of surgical error and delayed diagnosis.
In January 2022, Jenny was appointed a Standing Junior to the Scottish Government. In that capacity, she has acquired further experience in public law and been instructed in several cases raised in the Lands Tribunal of Scotland. In both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 Public Inquiries she is one of six junior Counsel, led by Geoff Mitchell K.C. representing the Scottish Ministers.
In August 2021, Jenny was appointed an ad hoc Advocate Depute and has experience in that capacity of prosecuting serious sexual offending in the High Court.
Jenny was shortlisted for Scottish Junior Advocate of the Year 2020 by the Legal 500
Lisa Henderson KC called to the Scottish Bar in 1995. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in September 2016. She was called to the Bar in England and Wales in 2019 and is a tenant at 42 Bedford Row, London. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an Ambassador for the Scottish Arbitration Centre.
Lisa specialises in the most serious clinical negligence and personal injury litigation. She has considerable experience in claims involving cerebral palsy, amputation, complex brain and spinal. She has acted in numerous multi-million-pound settlements.
Lisa is ranked Band 1 in the Chambers and Partners UK Bar for both clinical negligence and personal injury:
“…she has an aptitude for handling cases with complex quantum and causation issues arising from brain and birth injuries”
“Lisa is rigorous, thorough and a really hard worker.” “She is a good advocate and very experienced in clinical negligence.”
The Legal 500 lists her in personal injury and medical negligence saying: “She is extremely hardworking, with extensive experience in high-value personal injury cases.”
Lisa was the author of the personal injury elective for Edinburgh University’s Diploma in Legal Practice and former lead tutor. [2011 and 2017] She is a former honorary senior lecturer at Glasgow University School of Medicine [2012- 2018] and was a visiting lecturer at Pavia University, Italy. [2014 and 2015]. She has also taught at Aberdeen University School of Law. She is regularly invited to chair or present at conferences. She teaches advocacy skills on a regular basis. She is an advocacy skills instructor on the Faculty of Advocates devils [pupils] training programme.
Marcus McKay KC has a specialist interest in planning and environmental law. He is regularly involved in all aspects of the consents process for major energy projects from initial advice on the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations (including EIA Report work), to appearances at public inquiries and judicial review hearings in the Court of Session. Marcus has appeared at a wind farm inquiry in England and has experience of national infrastructure projects. He also acts for planning authorities and has successfully resisted applications for judicial review of planning decisions.
Marcus is listed in the Legal 500 where he is described as having “significant court experience, backed by sound commercial awareness.”
Marcus is a ranked Band 1 silk in Chambers and Partners UK Bar guide, where he is “Noted for his deep planning experience and widely praised for his meticulous attention to detail. His particular focus lies in energy and environment work, and he is especially experienced in renewable energy matters. He has experience advocating in inquiries and at all levels of the court system, including the Supreme Court.” The Guide goes on to say “He is a very gifted advocate and extremely diligent. He is always extremely well prepared and imaginative. He is highly intelligent and can not only grasp very complicated detail with ease but has the skill to be able to explain complex matters in straightforward terms.” “He is a very competent advocate, enthusiastic and diligent.” “He is definitely one of the best at the Bar.”
Maria Maguire KC called to the Bar in March 1987. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in February 2002. She has considerable experience in catastrophic injury cases, clinical negligence cases, fatal accident inquiries, abuse claims, cases involving psychiatric injuries and regularly acts in significant judicial review petitions for government bodies.
She has been listed in Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide consistently at Band 1 or higher.
Previous entries for Personal Injury describe her as “Frequently noted as a formidable negotiator, she has significant experience of acting for both pursuer and defender in high-level catastrophic injury claims”; “She’s had some pretty spectacular results – she is an extremely skilful QC; and “She’s awesome – scarily so.”; “She is one of the best advocates, if not the best, in Scotland. She is very nice and approachable with clients but in a courtroom she is just fierce.”; “She doesn’t give in easily. She is very robust and formidable on cases.”
For Clinical Negligence her previous entries note: “She is absolutely superb. She is very well prepared and is brilliant with clients.”; “She is someone who for many years has been entrusted with the most complex and difficult cases in Scotland.”; “a first-class clinical negligence advocate who is revered for her straightforward and hard-working approach. She specialises in complex brain injury and cerebral palsy cases and clients are left impressed with her ability to ‘always take every available argument‘.” ; “has produced some fantastic results” ; Unanimously regarded as a standout advocate in this arena, Maria is constantly in high demand. Of late, she has been focused on acting for pursuers in cases of the utmost complexity and severity. Strengths: “An absolute star at clinical negligence.” “She carries a great deal of weight in the court.”
She has been described in The Legal 500 as “‘quite superb’, absolutely diligent in all aspects of her work ’, and with an ‘immense’ knowledge base is able to ‘conduct fairly high-brow medical consultations with expert witnesses intelligibly and concisely without missing anything out” ; “A leading silk whose experience, judgement, intellectual ability and attention to detail are second to none.”
In Chambers 2019 she is rated as a Star Individual in both Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence with the following entries:
“A towering figure in both personal injury and clinical negligence matters. She specialises in complex catastrophic injury claims as well as fatal accidents, abuse claims and psychiatric injuries. Her competitors agree that she is a formidable opponent in court. “ ‘At the top of her game in every respect. She deals with highly complex matters and still manages to communicate with clients so that they both understand her and have total faith in her representation.”; “ She has excellent attention to detail , is excellent on her feet and as a strategist she has no equal.”
“Routinely considered the leading silk in the field of Scottish clinical negligence litigation…. Her extensive advocacy experience enables her to get to the bottom of the thorniest of medical causation issues”; “Top class. She has an eye for detail and knows the law”; “Supremely able and highly skilled”; “Absolutely superb. I would pretty much let her take my appendix out. Her knowledge of medicine is second to none and she is a great tactician.”
Legal 500 entry notes her as a leading silk in both fields and ‘A formidable advocate who commands respect.’
Maria acts on behalf of defenders, insurers, local authorities, professional bodies and individual pursuers – including those funded via legal aid, trade unions or on a speculative basis. Maria also acts for clients in Health & Safety Prosecutions.
As a member of the court user’s group dealing with court procedure she drafted the basis for the Chapter 42A procedures for catastrophic injury cases in Scotland and Practice Notes in order to improve the management of such cases. She continues to be active in monitoring and improving the procedure. She currently chairs a sub group of the Personal Injury Committee of the Scottish Civil Justice Council developing a Voluntary Pre Action Protocol for Clinical Negligence cases.
Confidentiality prohibits the details of the numerous claims which have settled without recourse to the courts or in the course of proof
