Rachelle Mahapatra > Irwin Mitchell > Leeds, England > Lawyer Profile

Rachelle Mahapatra

0370 1500 100 rachelle.mahapatra@irwinmitchell.com

Work Department

Personal legal services.

Position

Rachelle headed the medical negligence team from 2002, the Leeds team being a Legal 500 and Chambers Tier 1 team. She stood down in 2019 after she was promoted to the Regional Managing Partner of the Leeds office on 1^st June 2019. She continues to be a partner in the Medical negligence team with responsibility for managing a team and the Business development strategy for Leeds Medical Negligence, working to improve the Leeds office profile within the market. She promotes diversity and wellbeing programmes for staff in the Leeds office. Her objective is the growth of the Leeds office within the legal sector.

She qualified in 1993 and has 28 years’ experience in the field. She has acted for hundreds of clients injured in Hospital. In the last year she settled a failed resuscitation claim for a newborn baby, failure to diagnose a spinal abscess in a 68 year old man, resulting in paralysis, failure to diagnose and treat sepsis in a 2 year old, who now has a significant brain injury and is blind negligent management of forceps causing brain injury in two cases are amongst her recent cases.

She was the solicitor appointed as the patient representative on the Government ordered Inquiry into events surroundings Drs Kerr and Haslam, two North Yorkshire Psychiatrists who were sexually abusing patients.  The Inquiry reported in 2005.

She is a member of the Law Society Medical Negligence specialist panel, a referral solicitor for Action for Victims of Medical accidents and a Fellow with APIL.

She regularly publicises risks to patient safety that occur in the hospital environment. She has supported awareness campaigns with client testimonials to raise awareness about the dangers of non-diagnosis.

The IM advertising campaign included real former clients and featured a former client of Rachelle’s with cerebral palsy.

She has been an expert on the Victoria Derbyshire show, presented to the AVMA conference and sat as an expert on their panel at local meetings. She also took part in a debate featuring 100 Years of Women in the Law.

She has featured as lawyer in the News in the Times and won Yorkshire Partner of the Year at the Yorkshire Legal Awards 2017.

Career

Trained Hatley & Worstenholme, qualified 1993, partner 1997; partner Keeble Hawson Solicitors 2001; partner Irwin Mitchell 2002 to date.

Memberships

APIL (fellow); accredited brain injury specialist wilth APIL; Law Society clinical negligence panel; referral solicitor for AvMA; honorary legal secretary of the Leeds and West Riding Medico-Legal Society 2003-2010.

Education

Woodhouse Grove School, Bradford; East Anglia Polytechnic (LLB); York Law School (Law Society finals); Leeds Metropolitan University (diploma in personal injury litigation).

Leisure

Horse riding – in 2008 rode across Transylvania to raise funds for World Horse Welfare, keen follower of the arts.