Anderson Strathern launches specialist Inquiries Unit
Our firm is announcing the launch of our new Inquiries Unit with a team of specialist solicitors working across Fatal Accident Inquiries and Public Inquiries.
Well known inquiries lawyers Catriona Watt and Sarah Phillips lead the team of more than 10 solicitors, with their expertise and focus on advising and representing organisations, public figures and individuals.
The news comes following the firm’s two-year involvement in the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, which became well-known through the ITV drama Mr Bates v the Post Office and as the terms of reference are announced for the latest public inquiry – the Eljamel Inquiry. Led by Lord Weir, it will look into the disgraced neurosurgeon Sam Eljamel and his employment at NHS Tayside over a 20-year period. Our firm acts for a seriously injured victim of Eljamel’s surgery.
The Anderson Strathern Inquiries Unit team has been involved in some of the highest profile public and fatal accident inquiries of recent years. Catriona is a Public Inquiries specialist known for her work on the Post Office Inquiry, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry. Sarah’s decade long Fatal Accident Inquiry experience includes high profiles FAI into the deaths in Scotland’s prisons and the Clutha helicopter crash. The team has also worked on some of the longest running medical fatal accident inquiries and public inquiries, including those into e-coli deaths in Lanarkshire and the Edinburgh Trams.
With the advantage of being part of a full service firm, the Inquiries Unit can also draw on the expertise from across the business’s regulatory, financial, crime, commercial disputes and medical negligence teams whenever that’s needed.
Our Inquiries Unit team includes Partners Robbie Wilson and Gary Burton, Directors Julia McDonald and Chris Weir, Senior Associate Lucy Thornton, Associates Lauren Doherty and Lesley Turner, Senior Solicitors Rohi Shah and Andrew Richmond, and solicitors James Halley and Duncan Roach. Clients include the Royal College of Nursing, National Federation of SubPostmasters, Scottish Prison Service, the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Gordonstoun and Merchiston Castle School.
Catriona Watt, co-leader of the Inquiries Unit said: “The team’s experience in many of the most complex and high profile of inquiries has helped put us at the forefront of this work. This dedicated unit is the natural next step given the increase in this specialist area of the law.”