Niall Maclean

Niall Maclean specialises in high value and complex personal injury, industrial disease and clinical negligence work, acting for claimants and defendants.

He is consistently ranked as a Band 1 / Tier 1 leading junior in Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500. The current editions describe him as “a fantastic senior junior” who is “exceptionally bright” and “superb in joint settlement meetings”, and as “ferociously hard-working, excellent with clients and outstanding in court”.

He generally acts in cases valued in excess of £1 million, usually unled, and frequently against silks.

Niall’s personal injury practice focuses on:

• catastrophic injuries and fatalities;
• brain injuries, from subtle to maximally severe;
• serious spinal injuries, including those causing tetraplegia;
• complex orthopaedic cases, including all forms of amputation;
• functional neurological disorders;
• chronic pain syndromes, complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia and somatoform disorders (SSD); and
• serious psychiatric conditions.

Niall’s long-established industrial disease practice is focused on claims involving exposure to asbestos, chemicals, noise and biological hazards including rare pathogens. On behalf of claimants, Niall has fought and won numerous asbestos exposure cases giving rise to difficult questions of liability (including allegations of “low exposure”), causation, limitation and quantum. He is a recognised authority in the field, and is in demand as a speaker and author on these topics. He is a contributor to Sweet and Maxwell’s Asbestos: Law and Litigation, a leading textbook.

Niall’s clinical negligence work covers a wide range of medical negligence, as well as the negligence of associated professionals. He is experienced in the full range of breach of duty and causation issues that tend to arise. He has fought and won difficult cases, including in relation to the delayed diagnosis of rare forms of cancer.

Niall also has considerable appellate experience. He appeared in the Supreme Court (led) for the successful appellant in Knauer v Ministry of Justice [2016] UKSC 9, an important case on the quantification of future losses in fatal claims. He appeared in the Court of Appeal (unled) for the successful respondent in Scott v Gavigan [2016] All ER (D) 35 (Jun), a case concerning issues of foreseeability and legal causation in road traffic accidents.

Called 2008, Lincoln’s Inn. Awarded the Megarry Scholarship, Buchanan Prize, Lord Denning Scholarship, Lord Bowen Scholarship and Hardwicke Entrance Award.

One of the Attorney General’s Junior Counsel to the Crown from 2015 to 2020.

Pupil supervisor.

PIBA, PNBA, LCLCBA

B.Phil. and D.Phil., Balliol College, University of Oxford

MA (First Class Honours), University of Glasgow

Bar Vocational Course (Outstanding), BPP Law School

GDL (commendation), City University