The Legal 500

Work Department

Clinical negligence.

Position

Chris is a partner in Pannone’s clinical negligence department and a specialist clinical negligence solicitor. Acting on behalf of patients and their families, he deals with clinical negligence compensation claims and ‘best interests’ treatment decision cases. He also has significant experience in independent inquiries into healthcare issues. In his clinical negligence practice, he deals with a full range of claims arising from deaths and serious injury following negligent medical treatment, including birth injuries, surgery claims and inquests. As well as his core practice in clinical negligence litigation, Chris has gained wide experience acting in treatment disputes and cases on the withdrawal of life support.

Career

Trained Alexander Harris; qualified 2001. Alexander Harris 1998-2006; Pannone LLP 2007 to date; partner 2008. Chris acted for the parents in the widely publicised case of Re MB [2006], which concerned a hospital trust’s application to withdraw life support from a child. The Court was persuaded that withdrawal of life support was not in MB’s best interests and the parents successfully resisted the application. Chris has also had significant involvement in work relating to independent inquiries, both public and private. Chris is currently advising on the Redfern Inquiry into human tissue analysis at UK Nuclear Facilities. In 2004 and 2005, Chris acted for the families in the Everall Inquiry, a public inquiry into the deaths of two young people in social services care. Chris assisted in representing the families of the victims of Harold Shipman in the Shipman Inquiry. Chris was recommended in ‘Chambers 2009’, an independent guide to the legal profession, as a ‘rising star’ in clinical negligence. In the 2008 edition, he was noted as having an ‘intelligent and savvy approach to a case’.

Member

Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL).

Education

King William’s College, Isle of Man; Nottingham Trent University (1997 LLB); Nottingham Law School (1998 LPC).

Practice Areas

Clinical negligence - claimant; Healthcare