Eva Ferguson > Hailsham Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Eva Ferguson

020 7643 5000 eva.ferguson@hailshamchambers.com

Position

Eva is a determined and meticulous advocate who wants to win and believes her clients deserve nothing but her best endeavours. Eva is a leading junior in clinical negligence, and professional negligence and liability (primarily claims arising out of mishandled clinical negligence and personal injury litigation). She also undertakes personal injury and some costs work. Eva is sought after by both claimants and defendants and if the Directories are to be believed “her incisive intellect means that she is the obvious choice to navigate complex claims”. Eva will act on CFAs where appropriate and in general does not charge a success fee recoverable from the client’s damages.

Eva’s guiding principles:

For each client, their own case is the most important case. Most lay clients will never have had the misfortune to require the services of a barrister before. The majority will feel stressed, apprehensive and uncertain. For claimants, life-changing amounts of compensation may be at stake, whilst defendants may feel their professional reputation is under attack. To be entrusted with their litigation is both a privilege and responsibility. Consequently, Eva’s most important case is the case she is working on at any one moment in time.

Winning means different things to different clients. Eva’s aim at all times is to identify what the client wants, how best to achieve it, and to give a comprehensive and realistic assessment of the case.

The client is paying for an opinion, not doubts. Litigation and the law can be complex, but it should never appear so to the client. Eva’s role is to analyse the law, evaluate the evidence, explain the situation to the client, and to persuade (sometimes the client, but more usually the other side or judge). Explanation and persuasion require simplicity and clarity.

The devil is in the detail. As a barrister, Eva’s specialist legal expertise is a given. However, to obtain mastery of the expert evidence or factual context of the specific case there is no substitute for sheer hard-work, grinding through the documents, and asking questions.

Two heads are better than one. Eva is lucky to be instructed by many highly experienced and specialist solicitors and understands well the pressures and deadlines imposed on professional clients. She believes that effective teamwork and being proactive provides clients with the best service and value for money.

Trial is the last recourse. Unless there is a real point of principle or fraud is involved, cases usually end up in court when one party has failed to understand the important issues and relative merits/value of the case. Clients instruct Eva because her finely crafted pleadings/schedules, robust approach to strike-out applications, and negotiation skills at RTMs/mediations are invaluable in assisting the other side achieve such understanding.

Career

Called 1999; Middle Temple.

Memberships

PNBA.

Education

ICSL; College of Law, York (1998); Hatfield College, University of Durham (1997 BA History First Class).

Leisure

Playing bridge, chess and guitar. Enjoys travelling and watching horse racing.