Adam Heppinstall KC KC > Chambers of Charles Gibson KC > London, England > Barrister Profile

Adam Heppinstall KC KC

020 7583 9020 [email protected] View profile

Work Department

Group actions, personal injury, product liability, employment, public law, environmental law, regulatory and disciplinary proceedings and public inquiries.

Position

Adam has recognised expertise in product liability, ESG actions, public, regulatory, commercial and employment law.  He is a group action specialist.  He has acted for a number of corporate groups facing mass tort actions (including based on their parent company liability for the acts of their subsidiaries and/or supply chains abroad) including Dyson, Camellia, Shell, Unilever, G4S and Cape. He is acting in a number of ESG related claims/group actions relating to supply chains and climate change. He has extensive service out, setting service out aside, forum and conflicts experience. He has also acted in a number of domestic product liability group actions, including in relation to NOx, Pandemrix, vaginal mesh, anti-depressants, hormone tablets, pacemakers and for GSK in the Seroxat group action. He has advised upon and conducted a wide variety of COVID-19  related litigation (PPE, testing, FOIA, procurement vaccines, and employment law). He leads for a Government Department before the Covid Inquiry.  He is used to dealing with complex medical/epidemiological evidence and is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and an Associate of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. He has extensive automotive and white goods product liability experience, including in product recalls, dealing with Trading Standards and OPSS. He is experienced in costs and funding issues, particularly in group actions. He acted for a Core Participant before the Grenfell Inquiry and has represented a number of clients before Coroner’s Inquests, regulatory tribunals (he has appeared in all of the non-tax Chambers of the FTT and UT, as well as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal and has conduct of cases before the Plant Varieties and Seeds Tribunal) and in health and safety/regulatory matters before the criminal courts. He is also expert in claims and regulatory actions relating to vehicles, emissions, noise, vibration, farming, food, medicines, medical devices, chemicals, seeds, fire alarms, fire safety, oil, ionising radiation and flooding. He has prosecuted for and  has advised the MHRA, the Foods Standards Agency and the Environment Agency. He has extensive mesothelioma and asbestos-related conditions experience. He is regularly instructed in commercial arbitrations and public procurement disputes. He has public and employment law practices. He was Junior Counsel to the Crown (A-C Panels, 2004 until 2021) and has acted, and continues to act for government departments in a large range of matters, in particular DHSC,  HM Prisons, and the MOD (not least in a series of serious personal injury claims, employment tribunals and group actions) He has addressed the Supreme Court in a regulatory judicial review which was referred to the CJEU. He appeared for the GMC in the Professor Sir Roy Meadow proceedings and before the Shipman Inquiry. He acts for private clients in judicial reviews, including against regulatory decisions (in particular relating to the regulation of medicines and medical devices) and as interested parties (for example in relation to climate change related claims). He acts in FOIA and GDPR proceedings (including in relation to archives, historic events and national security issues).  He produced a report for the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in relation to the appointment of Richard Sharp, Chair of the BBC.  He is available for instruction to carry out or to advise upon private or public investigations and inquiries.

Career

Silk 2021, Called 1999, Middle Temple; Judicial assistant to Otton and Buxton LJJs in 2000; Junior Counsel to the Crown since 2004, A Panel until  2014, on taking silk.

Languages

French.

Memberships

MCIArb, FRSS, COMBAR, LCLCBA, ALBA, ARDL, Medico-Legal Society, Associate of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine RCP London, Senior Associate of Royal Society of Medicine, Assoc. CIPD

Education

Balliol College, Oxford (1998 MA First Class in Jurisprudence); King’s College, London (1999 Diploma in EC Law).

Personal

Married.