Legal 500 2009

The Legal 500 is a guide to the legal profession published every year. It is compiled after interviews with over 3,000 clients and again this year has listed Leigh Day & Co and its partners in the top positions for their areas of speciality. They use a ranking tier system to rate the firms. This year more solicitors than ever have been named as leading specialists in their fields.  Those named as recommended lawyers are: Richard Stein, Frances Swaine, Sean Humber, Alison Millar, Jamie Beagent, Rosa Curling, Claire Fazan, Russell Levy, Anne Winyard, Henry Dyson, Olive Lewin, Shurouk Al-Sabbagh, Martyn Day, Sally Moore, Sapna Malik, Richard Meeran and Bozena Michalowska Howells.

Administrative and public law - Rank 1

The public law team at Leigh Day & Co is ‘the strongest anywhere from a claimant perspective’ and is ‘always sensitive to what we can afford’. Practice head Richard Stein is ‘wonderfully experienced and gives great confidence’, Sean Humber ‘has unrivalled knowledge of prison healthcare judicial review’, and Frances Swaine and Jamie Beagent are also well regarded. The practice continued with the judicial review into the BAE Systems investigation, and represented the RSPCA in challenging government policy on birdflu.

Civil liberties

Leigh Day & Co is ‘a wonderful advertisement for the profession’, handling a high volume of work, such as advising Mencap on the care of people with learning difficulties, and representing Binyam Mohamed. Practice head Frances Swaine’s healthcare expertise ‘brings a particular strength which others lack’, Richard Stein is ‘pragmatic and practical’, and Sean Humber is ‘committed to his clients and passionate about his cases’. Junior members of the team also attract praise.

Clinical negligence - Rank 1

Leigh Day & Co dominates the ranking for claimant clinical negligence. Standing ‘head and shoulders above the rest’, Leigh Day & Co’s 11-partner department is led by the ‘very well-organised’ Russell Levy, who is ‘clearly an expert in the field’. Renowned for its strength in the healthcare sector, the team acted on a number of complex claims in 2008, recovering damages ranging between £15,000 to nearly £6m in addition to a number of significant periodic payment settlements and awards. The practice includes the ‘eminent’ Anne Winyard; the ‘stand-out’ Claire Fazan; the ‘excellent’ Frances Swaine, and Sarah Campbell, who is described as ‘a real thinker’. Orthopaedic and spinal expert Henry Dyson, Olive Lewin who is experienced in cases involving demyelination of the nervous system, and Shurouk Al-Sabbagh are also recommended.

Education

At Leigh Day & Co, Richard Stein and Alison Millar represented several clients in appeals and claims made to the SENDIST Tribunal. The practice also advised parents on exclusion decisions and NGOs on educational provision-related reorganisations.

Environment

Leigh Day & Co is an ‘excellent’ boutique with ‘particularly strong tactical and political sense’ in acting for environmental claimants in high-profile cases. Martyn Day’s team includes the ‘solutions-driven’ Richard Stein, Sean Humber (recommended on ‘slightly esoteric’ cases), and ‘highly skilled and intelligent’ associate Rosa Curling.

Healthcare

Leigh Day & Co maintains its unparalleled reputation for claimant work. Niche firm Leigh Day & Co ‘provides a Rolls-Royce service, demonstrating a willingness to take on cases which others would not, and then to succeed’. The practice ‘excels’ at representing immigration detainees and people with multi-personality disorders. Sean Humber is ‘a leading expert on prison healthcare’, Frances Swaine ‘combines great care and commitment to human rights’, and Alison Millar offers ‘excellent service in clinical negligence’.

Personal injury

Sally Moore and Martyn Day lead the ‘excellent’ six-partner team at Leigh Day & Co, which welcomed Richard Meeran back to the partnership in 2008. As well as representing claimants in relation to serious RTA, industrial disease, travel and sports injury claims, it has a renowned international practice, specialising in bringing claims for groups of foreign nationals injured by the actions of UK companies or government organisations. With a ‘quality practice’, highlights include acting for approximately 50 Iraqi citizens who allege that they were unlawfully treated by British soldiers in Iraq (with Sapna Malik leading the advice).

Product liability

Leigh Day & Co is widely recognised by clients and peers for its product liability work. Martyn Day and his team, which includes Bozena Michalowska-Howells and Sapna Malik, represent four of the six drug trialists who received the TGN1412 monoclonal antibody (T-cell stimulator) drug in March 2006.