Kate has acted in public law challenges in a range of areas including cases involving access to justice and civil justice reforms, rights in the health field, the provision of community care services and consultation challenges. Kate also has experience representing intervenors in public law cases raising human rights issues and is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s panel of specialist counsel.

Cases include:

• R (A (A child by her litigation friend B) and B) v Secretary of State for Health – Challenge to failure to make provision for women resident in Northern Ireland to undergo termination of pregnancy free of charge under the NHS in England (acting for intervener British Humanist Association).
• R (A) v Haringey London Borough Council – Obligations of local authority to provide accommodation under section 20 Children Act 1989.
• R (Keep Wythenshawe Special) v NHS Central Manchester CCG and 11 others – Consultation challenge to the Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups’ “Healthier Together” programme.
• R (Tracey) v (1) Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (2) Secretary of State for Health – Judicial review challenge to the local and national practice and policy of “Do Not Attempt Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation” orders.
• R (Whitston) v Lord Chancellor – Challenge to the introduction of enhanced court fees of up to £10,000 for mesothelioma sufferers for commencing court proceedings against employers.
• Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) v Secretary of State for Health – Challenge to the duty of candour regulations, in particular to inconsistencies in standards applying to NHS primary care and private healthcare compared with other NHS bodies such as trusts.
• R (Whitston) v Secretary of State for Justice – Challenge to the consultation process leading to the introduction of the costs provisions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 for mesothelioma claims.
• R (Patel) v General Medical Council – Legitimate expectation challenge to General Medical Council’s decision on acceptability of doctor’s overseas degree.

Kate is a leading inquiries and inquests lawyer.  She has appeared in many of the leading public inquiries in England and Wales in recent years, as counsel to the inquiry and counsel for core participants, including for survivors and families.  She is ranked as a leading junior for her public inquiries and inquests work.  She has been recognised in The Legal 500 as “a fantastic inquest barrister” and in Chambers and Partners as “knowledgeable, empathetic, loved by clients and a pleasure to work with”.

• Junior counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), working on the overarching inquiry into allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation involving people of public prominence associated with Westminster.
• Junior counsel to the Dame Janet Smith Review into Jimmy Savile, the independent Review established by the BBC and chaired by former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith.
• Junior counsel for patients and relatives before the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry.

Kate has extensive experience of acting in inquests in mental health, hospital, community and prison settings, including Article 2 inquests and lengthy and complex inquests raising child protection, deprivation of liberty and systemic issues.

Kate has written on the right to life for Halsbury’s Laws, Volume 88A: Rights and Freedoms, and was a contributor to The Inquest Book: The Law of Coroners and Inquests (Hart Publishing).

Kate is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission panel of specialist counsel.  Kate has experience of discrimination claims in access to medical services and treatment, including rights to treatment abroad, disability discrimination and cases raising the public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.  She has advised the Equality and Human Rights Commission on its five yearly review of the state of equality and human rights in the UK.

Prior to coming to the Bar Kate worked as a Parliamentary legal adviser in the House of Lords, including on equality and discrimination law reform measures covering such areas as racial and religious hatred, sex discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination. 

Kate has a wide-ranging health and community care practice.  Kate has been described in Chambers and Partners as “very impressive and very good on the crossover between public and healthcare law”.

Her public law and human rights cases in the health and community care field include challenges to the policy and practice of Do Not Resuscitate Orders, to restrictions on access to justice for mesothelioma victims, challenges relating to the organisation and delivery of health and social care including consultation rights, access to treatment and regulation of the NHS, challenges concerning the local authority’s obligations under the Children Act 1989, equality and Human Rights Act claims and strategic litigation around systemic negligence.  Kate has experience of claims concerning the obligations on health authorities to fund treatment abroad and to meet continuing health needs.

Kate has extensive experience of claims against health authorities, including claims under the Human Rights Act, discrimination claims, claims of systems negligence, group claims and clinical negligence. 

Kate has extensive experience of claims against health and other public authorities, including claims under the Human Rights Act, discrimination claims, claims of systems negligence, group claims and clinical negligence.  Her work in this area is informed by her significant experience of public inquiries and inquests in the health field and she regularly acts in civil claims following inquests.

Kate has a particular interest in the widening scope of Article 2 and systemic obligations on health authorities, dignity issues and discrimination in healthcare.  Kate has been described in The Legal 500 as one who “knows her stuff on Article 2 in healthcare settings”.

She co-authored the chapter on human rights in Powers & Barton, Clinical Negligence (5th edition).

Kate has published and co-authored publications on human rights, equality and inquest law.  She is a contributing author to Halsbury’s Laws of England: Rights and Freedoms, Lester, Pannick & Herberg, Human Rights Law and Practice and The Inquest Book: The Law of Coroners and Inquests.  She has published in a range of legal journals, including Public Law, European Human Rights Law Review, New Law Journal and Legal Action.  Her work has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada.