Thursday 14 April 2016 – The BMLS Legal Debate

Debating the issue of the NHS and Corporate Manslaughter, with pupils from St John’s Chambers, Guildhall Chambers & Albion Chambers, Bristol

With special thanks to our former President, Tim Grice, we look forward to bringing you the BMLS Legal Debate for our next supper meeting. Following the success of last year’s Ethical Debate on assisted dying, we would welcome your support with this event. Prizes will be awarded by our sponsor, Janus Financial Consultancy.

We have 4 pupil barristers from St John’s Chambers, Guildhall Chambers & Albion Chambers, Bristol who will be debating the motion “This house believes that the NHS should never face a prosecution for Corporate Manslaughter.” This is very topical with a jury at Inner London Crown Court recently being directed to return not guilty verdicts against Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust and Dr Errol Cornish.

Judith, our President and Wendy, our Vice President will be judging and giving feedback to the debaters, but we would like some audience participation in as much as we will be taking a vote before and afterwards to see whether the pupils have successfully swayed your views!

There will be supper beforehand as usual. We really hope as many of you as possible come along to support this event as the pupils have worked very hard in preparing for it. Hopefully it will a lively and thought provoking evening!

Debaters:

Marcus Coates-Walker (St John’s Chambers)

Marcus is a pupil barrister at St John’s Chambers, having started pupillage in October 2015. He graduated with a First in Law at Cardiff University and was President of Cardiff University Students’ Union. He completed the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) at Kaplan Law School in July 2013 and worked as a Project Manager at Macfarlanes LLP for just under two years.

Kriti Upadhyay (Guildhall Chambers)

Kriti commenced her pupillage in September 2015. She grew up in India, Oman, and Cheshire. She studied law at Merton College, Oxford. She developed an interest in all aspects of medical law, leading to a specialist LLM in medical law at King’s College London which she completed with distinction in 2012. Kriti was awarded an Exhibition by the Inner Temple before completing her Bar Professional Training Course at Kaplan Law School.

Sarah Gerrard (Albion Chambers)

Sarah studied criminology and law at UWE Bristol and then completed the GDL at the College of Law, before returning to UWE to complete her Bar Professional Training Course. Sarah started her pupillage with Albion Chambers in November 2015

Genevieve Moss (Albion Chambers)

Genevieve studied law and history at the School of Oriental & African Studies in London, before completing the GDL and her Bar Professional Training Course at the University of Law. She has recently started her pupillage with Albion Chambers in Bristol.