Claire Mulligan
Claire.Mulligan@kennedyslaw.com
+44 20 7667 9777
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Profile
Claire leads Kennedys’ UK Liability Defence group and the travel team. She is a partner in our London office, and qualified in England and Wales in 1995.
Claire has been advising the travel and tourism industry for over 20 years on all manner of issues and litigation, including the Tunisian terrorist attack inquests, hotel accidents, overseas accidents and injuries whilst on holiday, drownings and catastrophic injuries sustained in pools or from balcony falls, hurricanes, mountaineering and climbing accidents, and sickness outbreaks.
In addition to defending claims, she drafts tour operator and travel agents’ terms and conditions, supplier contracts, crisis manuals and health and safety addendums. She also has a wealth of inquest and regulatory expertise and advises management boards on risk management, GDPR and health and safety issues. Claire acts for insurers and corporates with large deductibles including travel companies, tour operators and hoteliers. She defends employers’, public and motor liability claims, including large loss cases and serious incidents abroad.
Claire is an expert in crisis management and provides a 24/7 crisis response service to a number of clients. She has handled a wide range of incidents including child abduction/disappearance from a hotel, terrorism attacks, child drownings, polar bear mauling, BBC Panorama’s coverage of alleged abuse, and the UK’s largest hotel fire. She provides crisis management workshops and crisis management assistance to over 100 tour operators and agents.
Since 2000, she has been consistently listed in Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500, as a ‘leading lawyer’ in the fields of travel litigation and defendant injury litigation. From 2012 Claire has been listed as a 'Super Lawyer' in the Telegraph's rankings in the field of travel and transport.
Claire is a regular speaker at the annual LexisNexis Travel and Tourism Conference, ABTA, ACTE and ABTOI conferences. She is also an ‘expert’ on LNTV (Legal Network Television).
Claire is an author of Kennedys’ Claims Handling Law and Practice Guide, the fourth edition of which was published in February 2021.
Claire also contributed to the fourth edition of Kennedys’ Global Legal Handbook, one of our most popular guides, which outlines the main legal and procedural issues that case handlers may encounter when dealing with claims across 53 jurisdictions globally.
She also contributed to the Claims inflation and personal injury claims: a global review report, published in June 2023.
Claire is a member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL).
Claire Mulligan provides a first-class service at all times....[Her] knowledge and expertise of the travel industry enables her to understand a problem quickly and to follow up with realistic recommendations and advice.
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Qualifications and admissions
- Qualified in England and Wales in 1995
Market recognition
- Notable practitioner (Band 1) for 'Travel: International Personal Injury (Defendant) (UK-wide)'
"Claire Mulligan's knowledge and expertise of the travel industry enables her to understand a problem quickly and to follow up with realistic recommendations and advice."
"Claire Mulligan provides a first-class service at all times."
"Claire Mulligan is professional, helpful and extremely knowledgeable."
Chambers UK 2023 -
Leading Individual and recommended lawyer for 'Travel (London)'"The 'highly supportive' Claire Mulligan heads up the practice and is a key contact for crisis work including inquests into deaths overseas, catastrophic loss cases and class actions"."Claire Mulligan, Justin Collins both superstars".The Legal 500 UK 2023
- Notable practitioner (Band 1) for 'Travel: International Personal Injury (Defendant) (UK-wide)'
"Claire has a wealth of knowledge and nothing is ever too much trouble. She’s a fantastic asset to our business."
"She is very approachable, thorough and knowledgeable."
Chambers UK 2022 - Leading Individual and recommended lawyer for 'Travel (London)'
"Claire Mulligan is a fantastic source of knowledge."
"...'fantastic' practice head Claire Mulligan, who has acted on many recent high-profile cases."
The Legal 500 UK 2022 - Notable practitioner (Band 1) for 'Travel: International Personal Injury (UK-wide)'
"Her efficiency is exemplary and her knowledge is encyclopedic,"
Chambers UK 2021 - Leading Individual and recommended lawyer for 'Travel (London)'
“An inspiring litigator and winner who leads her team from the front, and stands head and shoulders above her rivals; where she goes, her team follow, and there is literally nowhere in this sphere of litigation where she does not go. As comfortable fighting in court as she is negotiating in the commercial sector.”"'inspiring litigator' Claire Mulligan...is particularly active in high-profile, sensitive crisis cases, including inquests following deaths overseas, catastrophic and large loss cases, class actions and general liability work."
The Legal 500 UK 2021 - “I deal with a lot of travel and tour operator claims and she's got a lot of technical expertise in that area. She's probably the leading person in the legal market. She's achieved lots of good results on the travel claims for the company.”
The Gracechurch London Market Insurance Law Report 2019 - Notable practitioner (Band 1) for 'Travel: International Personal Injury (Defendant) (UK-wide)'
"Claire Mulligan is held in high regard for her international personal injury expertise. She assists leading operators and insurers with inquests and claims following fatal and catastrophic incidents abroad. Clients say: "She is experienced, knowledgeable and respected for her pragmatic, commercially sensitive advice.""
Chambers UK 2020 - Leading Individual and Recommended Lawyer for 'Travel (London)'
"Clare Mulligan is an excellent communicator and manages to put anyone she interacts with at immediate ease."
The Legal 500 UK 2019/20 - Notable practitioner (Band 1) for 'Travel: International Personal Injury (Defendant) (UK-wide)'
"Excellent judgement on sensitive issues, "first-class knowledge" and "fantastic support and great client service."
"Claire Mulligan is lauded as 'one of the UK's best travel and tour lawyers'"
Chambers UK 2019 - Leading Individual for 'Travel (London)'
The Legal 500 UK 2018/19 - Ranked Band 1 in Travel: International Personal Injury (Defendant) – UK wide
“one of the UK's best travel and tour lawyers," garnering praise for her "excellent judgement on sensitive issues, "first-class knowledge" and "fantastic support and great client service."
Chambers UK, 2019 - Leading Individual for 'Travel - personal injury (London)'
"Leading travel law litigator' Claire Mulligan is ‘extremely impressive’ and provides ‘clear, concise and constructive advice’."
The Legal 500 UK 2017 - Included in the The Best Lawyers™in the United Kingdom 2019 for Travel Law (London).
- Ranked Band 1 in Travel: International Personal Injury
Described as "a cut above the rest in the field of travel litigation; she gives great advice and support to her clients." Another observer notes: "She is amazing. Her level of legal knowledge is second to none. She is always my first port of call"
Chambers UK 2018 - Claire’s team won Transport: Firm (Specialism) of the Year – for ‘Travel’ in The Legal 500 UK Awards 2017.
Awards
Work highlights
- Handling inquests and claims arising from the Tunisian beach terrorist attack in 2015.
- Handling large, multi-million pound class action against tour operator, where there is a suspicion that claims are and have been presented without knowledge of claimants.
- Advising clients and the industry on the defence of sickness claims and how such claims can be successfully defended and claimants pursued for fundamental dishonesty findings.
- Advising hotel in Egypt involved in the death of a British couple on holiday.
- Parker v TUI UK Limited [2010]Lead team in the industry-leading liability decision for holiday excursions in the Court of Appeal.
- Advised on the Penhallow Hotel fire in 2007, which was reported to be the worst hotel fire in 40 years. Three people died and five others were injured. The inquest lasted for four weeks and centred on allegations that the hotel had failed fire checks. The hotel was later subject to a criminal investigation by the fire service. The tour operator escaped liability on a civil and criminal basis.
- Acted on behalf of the gap year tour operator for a coach crash in Ecuador in 2008 where four British girls and their tour guide were killed with another 15 people injured. We then successfully defended a civil claim that was pursued by one of the injured passengers against the tour operator.
- Advised on the inquest and public inquiry into the polar bear mauling on behalf of the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) and the tour operator responsible for organising the school trip. We successfully defended the BSES against the charge of neglect.
- Acted on behalf of TUI during the high-profile inquest into the death of Chloe Johnson in 2013 whilst on holiday in Egypt. We obtained evidence to show that the hotel complied with all relevant standards, had been fully audited, that lifeguards were present and that Chloe did not have armbands despite being a non-swimmer.
Insurance and reinsurance
Transport and logistics
Travel and tourism