Public Inquiries and Investigations

Inquiry work requires an intimate understanding of the political and media pressures that are triggered once an inquiry is announced. We have experience advising the NHS, Government bodies, and inquiry chairs directly on how to manage these pressures.

We take a 'one team' approach, where we endeavour to gain a better understanding of the organisation's challenges by working very closely with leadership at all levels to become part of your team rather than an adjunctive support service.

The size of our team enables us to work on a flexible and agile basis, so we can scale resources up and down as you need them, without the unnecessary cost of simply having lawyers on standby.

We understand the budget pressures and media scrutiny that come with inquiries. We are well-versed in bringing an in-depth yet streamlined approach to representing participants in an inquiry, which has often led to a year-on-year reduction in legal spending for our clients. Given the increased scrutiny on inquiry and legal spend, we take pride in bringing a commercially conscious approach to our inquiry work, whilst ensuring the public interest is properly met.

Featured experience

• Advising NHS England on the COVID-19 inquiry, likely to be the biggest public inquiry seen in the UK to date
• Acting as POL’s Inquiry Director for over a year and representing former senior executives and leaders on the Horizon Inquiry
• Acting as official solicitor to the Windrush Review, Magnox Inquiry, and Cumberledge Review
• Representing the main contractor for the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower
• Representing a major NHS Foundation Trust, who are one of the main haemophilia centres nationally in the relevant period, on disclosure of 50 years of documents, IBI requests, and section 9 responses
• Advising NHS University Hospitals Bristol on the Bristol Royal Infirmary inquiry and the independent review into Paediatric Cardiac Surgery in 2016
• Advising a core participant representing patients in the Northern Ireland health system, in the Muckamore Inquiry
• Representing the Trust responsible for administering medical treatment in the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry