New Regional Managing Partner For Newcastle Also Announced

The Serious Injury (SI) Team at leading law firm Irwin Mitchell’s Newcastle office has enjoyed a busy couple of years as the team has undergone personnel changes, won multiple awards and successfully recovered over £45m in damages for its clients.

Since January last year, the team has welcomed a new Associate, Andrew McGowan who has 25 years’ experience of high value PI work, two new Solicitors, Laura Gabbey-Cristofini and Alastair Elliot, and registered General Nurse Kim Davies as Client Liaison Manager to the office.

The new-look team has continued to build on Irwin Mitchell’s impressive reputation by winning the Personal Injury/Clinical Negligence Team of the Year award at the Northern Law Awards in 2016. The team, which also won the award in 2015, has been nominated for the same award in 2017.

This month also sees specialist will dispute lawyer Paula Myers take over as the new Regional Managing Partner for the Newcastle office and the nearby Middlesbrough location.

Paula will continue to head up the national and first tier Will, Trust and Estate Disputes team at Irwin Mitchell and has almost 20 years’ experience in litigation matters, advising individuals, trustees, executors and corporate bodies in a range of disputes concerning Wills and trusts.

Speaking about her new role, Paula, who is from the North East, said: 

Expert Opinion

“Irwin Mitchell has been in Newcastle for more than 10 years but we continue to grow and we have had a really busy past few years. It’s great that the team is being recognised with award wins but the reason we are successful is our client focus and we have consistently managed to deliver outstanding results for them.

“I’m very proud that our Serious Injury team has recovered over £45m in damages for our clients in just two years. This is a fantastic achievement and has helped so many people to get their lives back on track. I look forward to leading the team as we look to help more people across the North East in future.” Paula Myers - Partner

A case that the SI team has worked on during the last two years is that of an elderly man, who wishes to remain anonymous, that was hit by a car when walking and suffered severe spinal injuries as a result.

The SI team worked for over two years to ensure the man received the necessary funds to be meet his post-accident accommodation needs, therapy requirements and the 24-hour care he needed.

Over the course of the legal action, the team secured substantial interim payments which helped adapt the man’s home so he could still live there with his injuries. The payments also helped pay for carers and an intensive rehabilitation programme.

The Irwin Mitchell team is also ranked number 1 in the North East for personal injury and clinical negligence in two separate independent guides to law; the Legal 500 and Chambers UK guide.

Fran Mayes, who heads up the Personal Injury team at Irwin Mitchell’s Newcastle office and is lead Partner of the SI team, said: 

Expert Opinion

“The PI team works closely with other teams such as Court of Protection and Public Law to ensure that whilst their case is ongoing and even after legal action has concluded they are supported throughout their recovery.

“The damages we recover for our clients enable them to have access to the necessary treatment and rehabilitation programmes for the rest of their lives. These people would rather they hadn’t suffered serious injuries but it’s our job to help them get the best possible outcome so that they can live as independently as possible and get the help and support they need to recover.

“Our Court of Protection team has extensive specialist knowledge and resources to assist clients who lack the requisite capacity to manage their own property and affairs such as those suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, or brain injuries caused through medical negligence or severe head injuries in accidents or assaults.” Fran Mayes - Partner

It is not only their clients they help as last year the Irwin Mitchell Newcastle office raised over £14,000 for its charity of the year, Tiny Lives. Tiny Lives is a charity that helps to care for premature and sick newborn babies, their mothers and families in the Special Care Baby Unit of the Newcastle Neonatal Service based at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.