Leigh Day

Senior Partner: Martyn Day

Managing Partner: Chris Benson

Partners: 57

Assistants: 81

Number of UK Partners: 57

Number of other UK fee-earners: 222

(Paralegals & Associates): 187

Contacts

Accident & PI: Sally Moore

Abuse: Alison Millar

Administrative: Sean Humber

Clinical Negligence: Suzanne White

Employment & Discrimination: Emma Satyamurti and Nigel Mackay

Environment: Martyn Day

Healthcare: Sean Humber

Human Rights: Jamie Beagent

International Group Claims: Richard Meeran

Product Liability: Boz Michalowska Howells

THE FIRM

Leigh Day is a top 100 law firm committed to claimant only cases ensuring that individuals have the same access to justice as the UK Government and large corporations.

PRINCIPAL AREAS OF WORK

Personal Injury: The team acts for clients who have suffered severe and often life changing injuries. This includes cases of severe orthopaedic fractures, life changing injuries such as limb loss and brain and spinal injuries and representing a very large number of bereaved families. The cycling team handles hundreds of claims every year and is the exclusive provider of legal support to British Cycling and British Triathlon members.

Industrial Disease: The industrial disease team at Leigh Day not only represent clients who have developed an illness, usually from negligent exposure to asbestos in the workplace, but they has also shaped the law through landmark rulings, including from the Supreme Court, which improve the rights of all negligence victims.

Administrative & Public Law: The firm undertakes a large number of high-profile judicial reviews. The team has successfully challenged the Government over the implementation of Universal Credit and it represented The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) in its successful challenge against the UK Government for granting licences for arms to Saudi Arabia.

Clinical Negligence: The firm has 30 lawyers representing clients who have been injured, or the families of the deceased, through negligence in a healthcare setting. Head of department Suzanne White is a trustee of the Patients Association and the team works with many other organisations campaigning for patient safety across the NHS and in private practice.

Employment: The employment team at Leigh Day is currently acting for over 50,000 supermarket workers in one of the largest equal pay group claims in history, against the big four supermarkets. The team has also pioneered legal challenges to discriminatory pension schemes in the public sector and is acting for thousands of public sector workers. The team is also involved in claims against most of the gig economy employers.

Environment: The firm specialises in claims as a result of exposure to pollution, including radiation, chemicals, pesticides and sewage in the sea. On behalf of Wild Justice, a group led by the naturalist and broadcaster, Chris Packham, the team brought a successful challenge against Natural England over general licences allowing for the mass killing of several species of birds. The team is at the forefront of the legal fight against climate change on behalf of its clients. They continue to bring judicial reviews of grants of planning permission on air pollution grounds, and the firm is at the cutting edge of scrutinising the lawfulness of the UK government’s subsidies for fossil fuel projects abroad.

Human Rights: The human rights department offers expertise in special needs education, child abuse, confidentiality and planning. The team has an outstanding reputation for its work on medical ethical issues and ‘best interests’ cases. The firm has been ground-breaking in its consideration of the impact of human rights on health and social care law.

International: The firm has pioneered legal developments in multi-party cases on behalf of claimants in the UK and overseas, ensuring that large corporations based in the UK face justice in the UK over the actions of their subsidiaries in developing countries. The firm has also been at the forefront of litigation against the UK Government for alleged human rights breaches arising from the UK’s involvement in overseas military operations and the global ‘war on terror’. In addition, the firm has been at the vanguard of modern slavery litigation. The department’s cases emanate from across globe, in particular Africa, Asia, South America and Europe, with the team providing access to justice to thousands of people who would otherwise go without redress. The work of the international team has established numerous legal precedents, including Supreme Court authority, on issues as diverse as parent company liability and jurisdiction, the remit of English courts to adjudicate on the UK’s actions overseas, the interplay of UN Security Council Resolutions and the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and the duty of care owed to those serving in the British military abroad. The team’s successes go beyond securing compensation, such as in 2018, obtaining an unprecedented public apology from the UK Government for its role in the ‘detention, rendition and suffering’ of its clients Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar.

Product Liability: The department has been involved in some of the most important product liability cases of the last 25 years. Claims include those against manufacturers of home appliances, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food products. The firm has also acted on behalf of claimants injured in clinical trials. The team are currently acting as the joint-lead lawyers, in the emissions defeat device group litigation against Volkswagen in the UK believed to be the largest group action in the UK, it is also investigating emissions claims against most vehicle manufacturers over diesel emissions on behalf of 100,000 UK drivers.