Head of Abuse Law and Public Inquiries at Slater & Gordon
Richard is Head of Abuse Law and Public Inquiries at Slater & Gordon Lawyers.
Based in Manchester, Richard qualified as a solicitor with Pannone LLP in 1994 and previously served as head of serious injury and a board member at Pannone prior to the merger with Slater Gordon in 2014. He specialises in abuse cases and public inquiries and is rated as a Band 1 Leader in the Field” in Chambers Legal Guide and as a ‘Leading Partner’ in Legal 500.
Richard has acted in many high profile and landmark cases including in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. He acted for the largest core participant group in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). He has also represented clients in the Manchester Arena Bombing Inquiry, the Thirlwall (Lucy Letby) Inquiry and the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry.
Richard is a Fellow of APIL. He is a co-author of the book “Guide to Child Abuse Compensation Claims” (3rd edition published by APIL/Jordans 2020), and has had many articles published in the legal press. He also writes a regular column on PI law for New Law Journal. Richard has appeared on radio and TV in relation to many of his cases, including BBC and ITV national news, Newsnight, Radio 4 “Today” and “PM” programmes, Radio 4’s “Law in Action” and international media. Richard’s book Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the Sex Abuse Crisis was published by Biteback Books in 2014.
Outside of work Richard served for 9 years as a board member of the Big Life Group, a Norh-West based social enterprise company including Big Issue in the North. He is vice president of the National Secular Society which campaigns for separation of church and state. He holds a visiting research fellowship at the University of Kent, where he works on an AHRC- funded project on Abuse in Religious Settings and Contexts. In his limited spare time he enjoys football, running and snooker.