The Legal 500

Work Department

Employment, professional discipline and health and safety.

Position

Principal areas are industrial relations (trade disputes, union rulebooks and elections, collective agreements and recognition, trade union rights) and individual contractual employment rights, especially injunctions to restrain discipline and dismissal in breach of procedure. Significant work/case highlights over the past 12 months include: Lakshmi v Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust [2008] IRLR 956 (QB); Mezey v South West London & St George’s etc NHS Trust (No.2) [2008] EWHC B9 (QB); LTL 9/4/2009; McConnell v Bombardier Aerospace Short Bros plc [2009] IRLR 201 (NICA); Kulkarni v Milton Keynes NHS Foundation Trust [2009] IRLR 829 (CA); Metrobus Ltd v UNITE the Union[2009] IRLR 851 (CA). Professional discipline: focusing mostly in the field of health professionals, John has tended to specialise in injunctions (by way of breach of contract claims or judicial review) to restrain discipline and dismissal in breach of procedure. In consequence he has done many GMC and internal disciplinary hearings, principally for NHS consultants. Significant work/case highlights over the past 12 months include: Lakshmi v Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust [2008] IRLR 956 (QB); Mezey v South West London & St George’s etc NHS Trust (No.2) [2008] EWHC B9 (QB); LTL 9/4/2009; GMC V Kashyap; Kulkarni v Milton Keynes NHS Foundation Trust [2009] IRLR 829 (CA); GMC v Owen. Health and safety: he has been instructed on behalf of the bereaved and injured in the public inquiries into the Ladbroke Grove and Paddington train crashes and is now awaiting (again on behalf of the bereaved and injured) the long delayed coroner’s inquest into the Potter’s Bar crash. John also conducts some important test case litigation in personal injury work (starting with the coal miners VWF litigation) which has led him into the field of health and safety – see below for this year’s contribution. Significant work/case highlights over the past 12 months include: Baker v Quantum Clothing Group [2009] EWCA Civ 499; LTL 22/5/2009; (2009) PIQR P19: Times, June 17, 2009 (CA).

Career

Called 1972, Gray’s Inn; QC 1987; director Newham Rights Centre 1973-76; lecturer Middlesex Polytechnic 1976-77; member Bar Council 1993-94; bencher Gray’s Inn 1995; visiting professor King’s College London 1999; co-author: ‘Munkman on Employers’ Liability’ (4th edition 2006); editorial board ‘Encyclopaedia of Employment Law’.

Member

Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine; Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies; Employment Law Bar Association (former chair); APIL; PIBA; Medico-Legal Society; New South Wales Bar Association.

Education

University of London (1969 LLB); Queen’s, Belfast (1971 LLM).

Practice Areas

Civil liberties and human rights; Employment; Public inquiries