Our Disease Team
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OUR DISEASE TEAM OUR OFFICES Southend on Sea Address: 1 Nelson Mews, Southend on Sea, Essex SS1 1AL Tel: 01702 568 710 | Fax: 01702 667 961 Leeds Address: 40 Park Square North, Leeds LS1 2NP Tel: 0113 323 0460 | Fax: 01702 667 961 Ipswich Address: Second Floor, Fraser House, Museum Street, Ipswich IP1 1HN Tel: 01473 351 692 | Fax: 01702 667 961 Birmingham Address: Grosvenor House, 14 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham B2 5RS Tel: 0121 796 5280 | Fax: 01702 667 961 Cardiff – opening January 2016 Boris was a senior equity partner at Berrymans Lace Charlotte was an associate solicitor at BLM before she left Mawer LLP (BLM), a national defendant law practice, to establish BC Legal. She trained at Barlow Robbins before he left in November 2012 to establish BC Legal. Solicitors in Guildford and qualified into their clinical negligence team in 2004. Boris qualified as a solicitor and joined BLM in October 1998. He was made a partner in BLM’s London She joined BLM’s London occupational disease team in occupational disease team in 2000 and jointly headed the February 2005 and was promoted to associate in October team for 12 years. 2010. Charlotte was responsible for managing a noise induced hearing loss team of solicitors/paralegal and Boris has specialised exclusively in occupational disease developing innovative defence strategies. claims throughout his 16 year career and has handled hundreds of such claims for a variety of insurer, corporate, Charlotte specialises exclusively in occupational disease local authority, NHS Trust and defendant clients. litigation and handles a considerable number of claims relating to many different diseases. She has a particular He has run in excess of 50 claims to full trial including 2 interest in stress, noise induced hearing loss, and acoustic cases to the Supreme Court – Majrowski v Guys & St shock claims and has run several notable cases to trial Thomas’ NHS Trust [2006 UKHL 34], a claim relating to the setting a precedent for future handling in these areas. Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and Baker v She was also involved in the Supreme Court case of Baker Quantum Clothing Group Ltd & Ors [2011 UKSC 17], which v Quantum Clothing Group Ltd & Ors [2011 UKSC 17]. concerned NIHL claims. Both claims are leading judgements in occupational disease litigation. Charlotte handles a variety of claims for several leading UK insurers including London Market insurers and also Boris advises a number of insurer clients on cutting edge acts for local authorities and corporate clients direct. litigation strategies, latent reserves and new and emerging disease issues. He is a recognised leader in the field. In the Charlotte regularly runs internal and external training Legal 500 2011 directory he is described as ‘great courses both for in house staff, insurance companies and strategically and technically and had a notable success in corporate clients. 2011 in Baker v Quantum Clothing Group Ltd’. Boris speaks on many external client seminars and industry seminars on a variety of occupational diseases. Southend-on-Sea Office Ashley Collins Ashley qualified as a solicitor in September 2010 with BLM London. He has since specialised exclusively in occupational disease claims, in particular NIHL and other long tail diseases. Ashley joined BC Legal in February 2013 and undertakes his own caseload of NIHL claims and also manages a team of three other lawyers. His caseload is primarily NIHL claims and he has a particular interest in causation and limitation arguments in these claims. Since joining BC Legal Ashley has had thirty discontinuances and two trial wins. One trial limitation in a HAVS matter featured in Edition 36 of BC News. DD: 01702 568 714 |Email: [email protected] Katie Brooks Katie was admitted as a solicitor in June 2012, following cross-qualification from the Bar. Pre- and post-qualification, Katie has over 4 years’ experience of handling pre-litigation and litigated industrial disease claims for major employer’s liability insurance clients including claims for NIHL, HAVS/VWF, occupational dermatitis, work-related upper limb disorders, Baker’s lung and occupational asthma. Katie has previously worked within the industrial disease teams at DAC Beachcroft in Leeds and Clyde & Co in Manchester. In addition, Katie has assisted senior colleagues with claims for asbestos-related conditions and WRULD. Whilst at DAC Beachcroft, Katie was part of a team which achieved recognition for the “lowest average case spend in NIHL claims for 2013 across panel” and “highest repudiation rate in team for that client”. During her time at DAC Beachcroft handling a pre-litigation caseload, Katie, specifically, had one of the highest repudiation rates within the team. Katie has considerable experience of successfully disputing claims for claimant’s costs through to detailed assessment. Of particular note, is the judgment in the case of Alan Beaumont v Dunlop (2013, unreported) in which a bill of costs was reduced by more than half and the Defendant was awarded its costs of detailed assessment. Since the introduction of costs budgeting, Katie has predominantly prepared her own budgets, objections to claimant’s budgets and made representations at CCMCs. Katie has experience of providing group and one-to-one training to junior colleagues and supervision to paralegals. Katie has experience of providing group and one-to-one training to junior colleagues and supervision to paralegals and has prepared claims handling guides for insurer clients. Since joining BC Legal in January 2015, Katie has had 3 discontinuances and successfully had a claim struck out for ineffective service. DD: 01702 568 727 |Email: [email protected] Alexander Buchanan Alex qualified as a solicitor in March 2012 having trained at Collins Solicitors where he was part of team handling high profile, group litigation cases arising out of the Buncefield oil depot explosion, the Corby Steelworks reclamation [Corby Group Litigation v. Corby Borough Council [2009] EWHC 1944 (TCC)], the Paddington rail crash [Gray v Thames Trains - [2009] UKHL 33] and contaminated land in Motherwell. Alex specialises in handling manual handling/WRULD and high value bacterial and chemical poisoning claims, but he also handles litigated NIHL and respiratory claims. With BC Legal Alex has achieved thirteen litigated discontinuances and two trial wins, one of which was a claim for chronic pain syndrome arising out of an alleged WRULD. DD: 01702 568 709 |Email: [email protected] Cresce Stokes Cresce is a 7 year qualified solicitor and previously worked with Boris and Charlotte in the BLM London disease team. Cresce joined BC Legal in November 2013. Cresce specialises in NIHL and HAVS claims, but more recently developed an expertise in defending claims for carpal tunnel syndrome arising from either exposure to vibration or repetitive movements. Cresce has a particular interest in the evolving medical literature in these areas. Over the course of her career she has averaged in the region 10 discontinuances a year. Cresce has successfully defended her insurer clients at 14 trials on issues of limitation and diagnosis / causation. Cresce has worked with clients on secondment and regularly gives training to clients on NIHL claims. DD: 01702 568 730 |Email: [email protected] Laura Morrison Laura obtained a 2:1 degree in Law and a Commendation in the Legal Practice Course from the University of Sheffield. She completed her training contract with Clear Law LLP in 2011 and subsequently handled a varied case load of employer’s liability, public liability and road traffic accident matters on behalf of claimants whilst supervising a team of four fee earners. She moved to the serious injury team at Quindell Legal Services in 2012 where she handled a caseload of high value matters worth up to £300,000 and assisted the head of department with catastrophic injury claims. Laura joined BC Legal in March 2014 and conducts a case load of NIHL, RSI and WRULD claims. DD: 01702 568 720 | Email: [email protected] Alison Mitchell Alison graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Law from The University of Dundee and obtained a distinction in her Legal Practice Course. She trained as a solicitor with BTMK solicitors in Southend-on-Sea and completed seats in the personal injury and clinical negligence departments. Alison joined BC Legal in September 2013 and now handles a mix of disease claims but particularly NIHL claims. Alison is a central contact for a number of large corporate insureds co-ordinating the handling of disease claims with the provision of MI and development of risk control strategies to reduce indemnity spend. DD: 01702 568 726 |Email: [email protected] Zoe Harker Zoe obtained a 2:1 degree in Law and Spanish from The University of Sheffield and a Distinction in her Legal Practice Course at Nottingham Law School. She trained as a solicitor with Collins Solicitors, Watford and completed an 8 month seat in the personal injury and clinical negligence department. Zoe joined BC Legal in September 2013 and has since handled a mix of NIHL and WRULD / manual handling claims. Zoe is currently co-ordinating the defence of group WRULD claims against a major UK retailer and its subsidiaries. DD: 01702 568 728 |Email: [email protected] Lee Powell Lee obtained a 2:1 LLB with Philosophy from Keele University and a commendation in his Legal Practice Course at the University of Staffordshire. He qualified as a solicitor in 2010 with Harris Cuffaro and Nichols Solicitors. Lee spent four years handling claims within their criminal litigation department handling a variety of both defence and prosecution cases. Lee joined BC Legal in February 2014. Lee handles a mixture of disease claims, predominantly NIHL together with WRULD, CTS and HAVs cases.