Barrister Profile

Main Areas of Practice

Coroners or Inquests
Family Law
Personal Injury
Professional Negligence

Biography

I have come to the Bar after over 20 years’ experience as a senior manager in the Scottish and Northern Irish National Health Service, with extensive clinical care and line management experience gained across the various health settings including large teaching hospitals, General Practice and at Health Board level.

I have undertaken pupillage with an experienced civil practitioner and whilst the emphasis of her practice was in Civil Litigation, I was also able to gain exposure to Criminal, Family and Employment proceedings as well as Inquests and Public Inquiries. I am interested in these areas but would be happy to accept instructions in all areas of law.

I am a native of Northern Ireland and returned home from Scotland in 2005, after which I successfully led regional and hospital-based service improvement projects in NI. These have been across the whole spectrum of health and social care, including auditing situations where there have been hospital services failures, work to ensure the best care for high-risk pregnancies, initiatives to improve care for older people to help them remain in their own homes and projects to reduce waiting times for radiological investigations.

Qualifications

1993: BA (Hons) Business Administration, Strathclyde University Business School, Glasgow

2016: Master of Science, Interprofessional Health and Social Care Management, QUB.

2018: Graduate Diploma in Law, University of Law, London

2019: Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Legal Studies, IPLS

2019: Called to the Bar of Northern Ireland

Member of the Institute of Healthcare Management

Experience

Personal injury and clinical negligence - my civil defence pupillage gave me a good understanding of civil actions and the key stages and processes involved in each.

My previous career has given me:

• a sound knowledge and experience of the clinical care settings.
• Understanding of the assessment, investigation and treatment processes in healthcare.
• Knowledge of the different information systems in healthcare whereby information about patients is captured, stored, shared and used.
• Detailed knowledge of service areas such as diagnostics, maternity services, emergency care and services for older people.
• Detailed understanding of best practice guidelines and required professional standards in different areas of clinical care.

Coroners/Inquests – I have attended coronial hearings both in relation to public inquiries and also inquests for deaths which occurred in healthcare facilities. In my previous career I led investigations for serious adverse clinical incidents to establish if every appropriate action had been taken, with follow up reviews to ensure learning.

Public Inquiries – I have led service audits and reviews in response to hospital performance failures, which involved detailed investigation of the various roles played, the processes involved, review of clinical notes and systems and actions taken in the light of professional standards that were to be met.

Family – I have attended a range of different family law cases and consultations during my pupillage including Children Order proceedings in the Family Proceedings Court, the Family Care Centre and High Court actions. I have also attended matrimonial proceedings at County Court and High Court level.

Employment – I have attended the Employment Tribunal during pupillage. I have extensive staff management experience from my previous NHS career which has included:

• Line management responsibility over 400 clinical, management and administrative staff, with responsibility for an annual operating budget of £22m.
• Recruitment, training and development.
• Managing grievance and disciplinary procedures.
• Leading investigation into allegations of bullying and harassment in another department.
• Mediation to achieve resolution of long-term disputes between clinical staff groups.
• Addressing long-term sickness absence, poor performance or attendance history.
• Service restructuring which resulted in voluntary redundancies, which had to be managed appropriately, sensitively and within the law.