The Legal 500

Work Department

Litigation.

Position

Laurence heads up Michelmores' clinical negligence team and has practised exclusively in clinical negligence litigation since qualifying in 1981 and is an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and Chartered Insurance Practitioner (1999). Accredited with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and AvMA clinical negligence panels. 'The Times' newspaper 'Lawyer of the Week' September 2007 and listed in Debrett's 'People of Today' Directory. He specialises in a wide range of claims involving sports injury treatment, paediatric and adult cardiac surgery, birth injuries, Cerebral and Erb's palsy, gynaecology, spinal and plastic/cosmetic surgery. Lead solicitor at the Bristol Royal Infirmary public inquiry representing families of children who died or suffered brain damage at the Bristol Paediatric Cardiac Unit - events described as 'the biggest surgical scandal in the history of the NHS'. Laurence handled the related fatal and brain damage claims with complex consent, damages, 'corporate failure' and PTSD issues. The Kennedy Report of 2001 resulted in wide-ranging changes in attitudes towards transparency and the culture within the medical profession, achieving new levels of accountability and audit procedures. Laurence has gained a specific expertise in litigating cases for British Nationals in UK courts where treatment was performed at overseas clinics. In doing so he relies where they are present on jurisdiction or factors and circumstances connecting claims to the UK. These cases include a claim for an 'ex-pat' who underwent spinal surgery at a hospital in Saudi Arabia which resulted in permanent injury and disability. Other cases include those for a former professional footballer who underwent a failed ACL knee operation performed by a leading American orthopaedic surgeon in Indiana, USA. Laurence's cases involving complex cross-border jurisdictional issues include those for UK clients who have undergone cosmetic and other medical and surgical procedures at overseas clinics. In January 2011, Laurence was appointed to the advisory panel of a major government-funded research project into Medical Tourism and the implications for the NHS led by leading academics and experts from York and other universities. Laurence has been closely involved in the concerns surrounding ISTC's and the outsourcing by the NHS of surgery and other medical treatment. He was invited to submit evidence in 2006 to the House of Commons Health Committee on Independent Sector Treatment Centres. Laurence and his team concluded in 2010, the settlement of claims brought in the English courts against UK pharmaceutical companies on behalf of a large group of haemophiliacs in the UK who contracted HIV and Hepatitis C after receiving infected blood products. The 'tainted blood' scandal was described by Lord Robert Winston as 'the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS'.

Career

Qualified 1981; partner Hazby Jarvis 1981-91; Brindley Twist Tafft & James 1991-94; Tozers 1994-99; Michelmores 1999; partner to date.

Member

AVMA referral panel; member and assessor Law Society's Clinical Negligence Panel; ATLA; APIL; Associate of Chartered Insurance Institute and Chartered Insurance Practitioner (1999).

Education

Lanchester Polytechnic (LLB Business law).

Leisure

Family, guitar, garden, psychedelia 1966-68, Aston Villa.

Practice Areas

Clinical negligence - claimant