Profile

John is a legal director based in Kennedys’ Manchester office. He qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2000 and joined Kennedys in 2022.

He handles higher value and complex personal injury cases involving a wide range of injuries, including cases of chronic pain, head injuries, and life changing injuries.  He acts for defendants where fraud is suspected, and also handles claims arising out of large scale food poisoning incidents for clients in the hospitality and catering sector.  He also deals with alleged discrimination claims for a high street retailer. 

John also handles inquest cases for a corporate client operating in the criminal justice sector, the majority of which proceed as Article 2 Inquests before a jury, and has also represented a global pharmaceutical company at a number of inquests in England and Wales concerning their medical devices and products. 

John acts for insurers and re-insurers, self-insured entities, and corporate clients in a wide range of sectors such as retail and warehousing, transport and haulage, construction, hospitality and catering, and manufacturing.

He is a member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL).

Work highlights

  • John successfully represented a logistics and warehousing company in the Court of Appeal in respect of training given to employees only to use the work equipment provided.
  • He successfully acted for a manufacturing business in the Court of Appeal in relation to the construction of steps in its delivery vehicles, where the Court found the steps were not inherently dangerous and no training in how to walk down steps was needed because the need to take care was obvious.
  • John also represented a global pharmaceutical at the high profile Inquest of a patient who died in an operating theatre where its product had been used off-licence, which attracted significant media interest.