COMPLETE COUNSEL - Key Persons
Ana specialises in Clinical Negligence, Personal Injury and Inquest Work (both freestanding and those linked to clinical negligence and personal injury claims).
Year of call: 2004
Appointments: Assistant Coroner to Birmingham and Solihull
Memberships: PIBA, Coroners' Society of England and Wales
Publications: 1) Clinical Risk: ‘Habeas Corpus? Body or Evidence?' 2) Clinical Risk: ‘She should have died hereafter.'
Ana provides Mock Inquest sessions for her Instructing Solicitors. Some of the feedback can be seen below. If you feel you may benefit from a session please contact us.
Ana is a founding member of Complete Counsel, Complete Mediation and Pro-Vide and is committed to making the Bar and provision of services current and innovative.
Ana Samuel is delighted to be speaking on Medical Device Incidents at the NAMDET conference in Birmingham today. Looks to be an eventful day.
Andrea is a public access accredited Barrister (called 1999) with more 18 years' post qualification experience in personal injury, clinical negligence and costs litigation. She is an accredited mediator and has provided training internationally in conflict management and mediation to such organisations as the United Nations and UPeace.
Prior to Call Andrea initially gained 4 years' experience in fatal and catastrophic injuries whilst working at renowned Defendant insurer solicitors Davies Arnold Cooper solicitors (now part of DAC Beachcrofts). Andrea has also acted as consultant to a leading insurer on "ways to minimize financial leakage in personal injury and clinical negligence claims". In 2015 Andrea carried out an extensive analysis of the costs market post-Jackson reforms for a leading private equity initiative. Andrea is formerly Head of Costs at Clerksroom specializing in complex costs issues. Andrea is currently Joint Head of Chambers at 218 Strand Chambers in London and practices as a Barrister from 218 Strand in London and as a door tenant at Complete Counsel.
Andrea has an approximate 70:30 split of Claimant/Defendant personal injury and clinical negligence work and an approximate 40:60 split of Receiving Party/Paying Party legal costs work.
Clinical negligence. Andrea has particular expertise in:-
Charles Feeny is a barrister, mediator and legal analyst. He is a Director of Complete Counsel which supports his practice as a barrister. Since 2016 he has practised as a mediator through CEDR and through Complete Mediation, a sister company to Complete Counsel. His activity as a legal analyst is focused on Pro-VIDE Law a web based project providing education and training.
Charles began his practice as a barrister as a general common law practitioner. In his early years at the Bar he had very substantial advocacy experience, including in front of juries. As the trend for specialisation at the bar developed, his litigation practice became centered on personal injury work, where it remains, in particular in high value personal injury actions, industrial disease claims and clinical negligence litigation. There are clear similarities in the challenges faced in such claims, as the cases often involve complex medical, technical and legal issues.
Charles has been acknowledged as a leading specialist in his practice field. He has achieved the highest ratings in legal directories including the status of Star individual in Chambers UK Directory, both in relation to clinical negligence and personal injury work.
Charles has appeared in over 50 reported cases and has been at the cutting edge of litigation in his specialist fields for two decades. Including;
"Charles Feeny, Gus Baker and Sam Irving have been published in the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management. In the April 2020 Volume 25, Issue 2, their article "Medical Accidents: a Socratic resolution?" has appeared. The Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, formerly known as Clinical Risk, is an international publication. The Editor in Chief is Professor Albert Wu, of the John Hopkins University, USA. It is published online with access by subscription. It publishes cutting edge articles in relation to patient safety and risk management. The article by Charles, Gus and Sam discusses the response to medical accidents in the United Kingdom. They argue that the approach appears to be something which has developed in a piecemeal way. The authors believe that the processes are now outmoded and lack a clear overview, in particular in terms of promoting better clinical management and less psychological impact on the victim. There is specific discussion of the effect of clinical negligence litigation in terms of adverse outcomes in terms of patient safety and the psychological wellbeing of victims. The conclusion is that an overall approach has to be considered which will improve both patient safety and psychological outcomes for those injured by medical accidents." The article is subject to copy right but an abstract together with a link to sign up for the journal can be found here.
Charles Feeny has been invited to join the CEDR Mediator Panel
A clinical risk article entitled "She should have died hereafter? When is death caused in law by breach of duty?" written by Charles Feeny and Ana Samuel has been published in the forthcoming issue of Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) Medical Journal. The article examines the law surrounding causation in situations when a death could be said to have been accelerated with particular reference to the case of Davies v Countess of Chester Hospital [2014] EWHC 4294 (QB). In doing so, the authors argued that there are two options available to the courts, one that is an arbitrary time limit and the second which focuses on materiality. For further details please contact editors@pro-vide-law.co.uk.
Charles Feeny is one of the two Directors of Complete Counsel. He is an experienced Barrister focussing on personal injury, clinical negligence and industrial disease litigation. He is an acknowledged specialist, recognised by the legal directories . He has achieved Star Individual status in Chambers Bar Directory, in two separate areas of practice, Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence. Charles has appeared in over 50 leading reported cases.
He was the first client of Complete Counsel and believes that the digital support concept supplemented by specialist practice management and financial management will enable him and other Barristers to practise in a way that reflects the core values of the Bar, that is independence and quality in advocacy and advice.
In common with an increasing number of practising lawyers, Charles has recognised the coming of the digital age and the deregulation that inevitably follows in its wake. This demands a more flexible, targeted and cost effective way of working, as opposed to determined but misguided attempts to prop up obsolete structures or persist in outdated working practices.
Claire is the prime contact for all of our Barrister Clients. With over 24 years experience in a traditional Chambers model she recognises that a proactive approach is essential in a developing and changing market for legal services, but one which still offers rich opportunities for those who are prepared to operate in the most intelligent and focussed way.
Claire's role with Complete Counsel involves an overarching supervision of diary and practice management but her principal focus will be on client contact and new business opportunities together with specific marketing initiatives.
Called to the Bar in 2006, James began his career working as a criminal barrister. Regularly appearing before juries and the Court of Appeal, James grew a reputation amongst his peers and clients as a considered and persuasive advocate and quickly began to accept instructions in only the most serious financial and regulatory crime. James's ‘career in crime' reached its zenith when he was instructed to act as junior counsel on behalf of the Serious Fraud Office in respect of prosecuting the LIBOR fixing scandal. This series of cases has received worldwide attention.
Looking for new challenges, James started to accept instructions in Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury. It was a revelation from which he has not looked back. Now an established practitioner at one of London's leading chambers, 9 Gough Square, James joins Complete Counsel with the intention of growing his practice further so he can genuinely call himself a heavyweight in the field.
The keystone to his success is simple; he is approachable, compassionate, hard-working and professional.
James accepts both Claimant and Defendant instructions (inc. NHSLA and private individuals). His work is wide ranging, covering all aspects of clinical negligence from cosmetic and dental surgery to data protection to claims arising out of hypoxia at birth. James is as comfortable dealing with high value claims of the utmost severity as he is with lower value claims that have difficult causation or evidential issues.
Of particular interest to James are accidents in foreign jurisdictions. Recently, James has been instructed to advise on quantum by a leading Claimant solicitors in respect of numerous fatal accident claims being brought as a result of the terrorist attack that killed 30 British citizens on a beach and hotel complex in Tunisia in 2015.
James is currently LexisNexis's expert on catastrophic injuries and has drafted a range of practice notes on the subject.
Lady Hale offered a reply to this in her Patterson Memorial Lecture on 8 October 2019. Whilst any reputation that Lord Sumption has had for popular wisdom has probably been dispelled by his suggestion that we should view Coronavirus in the same apparently sanguine way that medieval peasants felt about the Black Death, nonetheless Lady Hale's speech in XX is not a reply to his argument, but appears to be making it good. Once it is acknowledged that she has failed to deal with the issue in relation to coherence of the law, her speech can only be read in terms of its conclusion as to commercial surrogacy as expressing a personal view, thereby translated into public policy.
I think the real reason for Lady Hale's different view lies at the very commencement of her judgment in paragraph 1:
Lord Carnwath, with whom Lord Reed agreed, dissented. At paragraph 63, Lord Carnwath concluded that the issue was essentially one of "legal policy" and that the most relevant factor was what had been described in earlier authorities as "the coherence of the law". A legal system which criminalised conduct but at the same time awarded damages to carry out the same activity could not be regarded as coherent. Insofar as there was debate as to whether commercial surrogacy should be unlawful, Lord Carnwath indicated:
Called to the Bar in 1997, Lorraine first qualified as a solicitor in 1999. As a solicitor, Lorraine ran an extremely demanding Employment and Immigration practice which involved all aspects of both areas of law and judicial review work. Lorraine was a participant in Liverpool Law Society committee work.
In 2002 Lorraine joined India Building Chambers and following a merger in 2013 she became part of St Johns Buildings Chambers. In April 2015 she joined Complete Counsel.
During her time in Chambers Lorraine's practice has expanded into personal injury work followed by Professional Negligence.