Serjeants Inn, London
Michael has been joint Head of Chambers at Serjeants Inn since 2019.
Michael’s practice has focused on healthcare law for over 30 years. He specialises in the most complex clinical negligence claims, both on liability and quantum. The breadth of his practice includes extensive experience in medical treatment decision cases (Court of Protection and Family Division), professional regulatory proceedings, and medical inquests.
Michael is known for his assured, detailed, sensitive approach to cases. Clients warm to him.
His long experience of representing healthcare professionals before their regulatory bodies and in coroner’s inquests brings added depth to his understanding of the choices and outcomes his clients face. Michael’s practice has an increasing focus on issues surrounding mental capacity, in which he regularly appears in treatment decision cases for both the Official Solicitor and NHS bodies.
Recent reported judgments include:
- Gahir v Ola [2024] EWHC 390 (KB) (encephalitis; catastrophic brain injury breach of duty; causation; quantum);
- NHS North Central London ICB v Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability and XR (Withdrawal of Life Sustaining Treatment: Delay) [2024] EWCOP 66 (acting for the Official Solicitor where the hospital had delayed deciding whether to continue CANH from patient in a vegetative state about whom little was known);
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust v ST [2023] EWCOP 40 (acting for the Official Solicitor in a high-profile case where a Trust sought to move a woman with a progressively degenerative mitochondrial disease to a treatment plan of palliative care);
- Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust v Mrs C [2022] EWCOP 28 (acting for the Official Solicitor in a case concerning the best interests of a religious woman who was left in a vegetative state following a cardiac arrest);
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust v KM & TM [2021] EWCOP 42 (acting for the Official Solicitor in a case concerning the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from a 52-year-old man who had been healthy before suffering a cardiac arrest and contracting COVID-19);
- X NHS Foundation Trust v A [2021] EWCOP 17 (acting for the Official Solicitor in a case where the applicant Trusts sought a declaration that it would be lawful to carry out an elective caesarean section on a mother whose mental health meant that she lacked the capacity to determine the appropriate treatment).