Three new silks for Cloisters

Three Cloisters' barristers have been appointed silk by the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke this morning (1st March). Clinical negligence and personal injury specialists Patricia Hitchcock and Joel Donovan were among the 120 new silks announced today.  Edinburgh academic and Cloisters' associate Anthony Bradley was also appointed an honorary silk. 

Cloisters is already a top ranked clinical negligence set and the appointments are further evidence of this and its growing strength in the personal injury sector.

 

Patricia Hitchcock

Patricia was called to the Bar in 1988. She is a specialist in complex catastrophic injury cases, primarily involving brain damage, spinal injuries and/or cancer.  Most of her cases are in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court, for specialist solicitors, and involve disputed, complex medical evidence and very vulnerable claimants, the quality of whose future life depends on a satisfactory outcome.

Patricia is regularly instructed against silk. Other aspects of her practice include inquests, claims for compensation for unjust imprisonment, regulatory hearings and mediations.

In 2010 was involved in a number of high value cases. Her clinical negligence highlights include Chapman, a misdiagnosis of breast cancer case, and AXL v Northampton a severe birth related brain injury case Patricia has a substantial personal injury practice. Her 2010 highlights include Bridges, a £5m paraplegia case following a motorcycle accident and Rand, a £2m running down claim.

 

Joel Donovan

Joel was called to the Bar in 1991. He focuses on high-value High Court cases, typically involving brain damage or serious spinal injury, and has substantial experience at trial and appellate level.  In the clinical negligence field he is particularly known for his expertise in cauda equina cases, other claims involving delayed recognition and treatment of spinal cord compression, and those arising from secondary brain injury. His personal injury work centres on traumatic brain injury and claims arising from workplace stress.

Joel's  2010 clinical negligence and personal injury highlights include X v A, a £6.6m infant claim for brain damage caused by hypoglycaemia. T v A an incomplete cauda equina syndrome, and T v G tetraplegia case against three hospital trusts,  Sedge a high value brain injury case, M v L another significant brain injury case and D v F a £3.9m paraplegia case.

 

Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley is one of the most distinguished public lawyers in the United Kingdom .  Before coming to the Bar, he was Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Edinburgh . He was Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution from 2002 – 2005 and  British Representative on the Commission for Democracy through Law from 2003 – 2010.

Anthony has frequently advised on issues of constitutional law within the UK and the Commonwealth. He has taken part in many workshops on administrative law for the Commonwealth Secretariat.  Anthony is particularly well known for his contribution to the fight for return of the Chagos Islanders to their homeland.