Oliver Lewis - Healthcare and Serious Medical Treatment

Year of Call: 2000  

Chambers and Partners 2022, Band 2 (Court of Protection); Legal 500 2023; Tier 3 (Court of Protection and Community Care), Tier 4 (Inquest and Inquiries)

Oliver is ranked as a leading junior in the Court of Protection by Chambers and Partners and Legal 500. Medical treatment issues commonly arise in Oliver’s practice. Recent examples include disputes about Covid-19 vaccinations, nutrition and hydration (QJ v A Local Authority [2020] EWCOP 3), and the mental health care of those with complex clinical conditions. In 2021, Oliver was Consultant Editor for Halsbury Law’s “Mental Health and Capacity” with Leonie Hirst and Danielle Waddoup.  

His inquest practice is focussed on health and social care. He is instructed in several tortious claims relating to ill-treatment of people with learning disabilities and/or autism in health, education, care and prison settings. He has recent experience of conducting an independent investigation of institutional abuse/neglect and making recommendations to a healthcare organisation. He sits part-time for NHS England as a chair of Independent Review Panels for NHS Continuing Healthcare.   

For 14 years, Oliver was legal director, then executive director, of the human rights NGO ‘Validity’, based in Budapest, which advanced the rights of persons with mental health issues or learning disabilities across central and eastern Europe. In this role he led strategic litigation at the European Court of Human Rights, and oversaw strategic litigation in Strasbourg including Shtukaturov v Russia (2008) and Stanev v Bulgaria (2012) which have been cited by the UK Supreme Court. Oliver is a Visiting Professor of Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds. In 2015 he completed a part-time PhD on international human rights law and mental capacity. He has published on disability and healthcare, including with Soumitra Pathare the chapter “Chronic Illness, Disability and Mental Health” in Gostin and Meier (eds) Foundations of Global Health and Human Rights, OUP 2020; and the article "The role of supranational human rights bodies in protecting the rights of people with disabilities in the COVID-19 pandemic", European Human Rights Law Review, Issue 3, 2020.  

Read Oliver's full profile here.