With ‘excellent strength in depth’, Hugh James is experienced in obtaining group litigation orders, from industrial disease and product liability claims to consumer and environmental claims. The firm also acts in opt-out competition class actions concerning abuse of dominance and anti-competitive behaviour. The team is jointly headed by Neil Stockdale, who advises on employment and environmental actions, and Mark Harvey, who focuses on product liability. Gwen Morgan-Evans is experienced before the Court of Appeal, acting in environmental professional negligence and personal injury claims.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction: Sector knowledge
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- They have been innovative in developing new areas of group litigation work, e.g., acting for former clients in respect of failed solicitors' firms. They have substantial strength through the employment of a team of fee earners with experience and capability.
- A very high level of understanding of both group litigation and specialist work within that area.
- Knowledgeable and skilled in the legal profession. Very professional. Very open and honest and keeps you updated throughout the process. Polite, courteous, and reassuring throughout.
- Erich Kurtz was superb from start to finish. We had a consultation with Erich and we felt very confident that he and Hugh James would do their utmost to help us with the situation we were in and were most likely to bring it to a successful conclusion.
- Neil Stockdale has deep strategic nous and fine judgment, as well as a good commercial sense. Rebecca Andrews is an outstandingly careful and canny litigator, who lets no detail go unexamined, and is frighteningly efficient.
- Hugh James is unsurpassed in its strength and depth in claimant group litigation, particularly in the field of environmental claims but also more widely. The team can draw on very extensive experience from across the country and over many years.
Key clients
- Cohort of Calea claimants
Work highlights
Acting as lead solicitor in litigation involving over 35,000 serving members of the armed forces in relation to claims for noise-induced hearing loss.
Acting for a group of South African residents who allege that they suffer with mesothelioma because of environmental exposure to asbestos waste from mines operated by a South African subsidiary of an English-domiciled parent company.
Acting for a group in a claim involving the harm caused by the disruption in the supply of life-sustaining nutrition to patients.
Practice head
Neil Stockdale; Mark Harvey
Other key lawyers
Stephanie Eedy; James Gibson; Simon Ellis; Gwen Morgan-Evans