Next event: Thursday 12 May 2016 – AGM & Medecins Sans Frontiers

Thursday 12 May 2016 – Dr Ben Gupta – “Working with Medecins Sans Frontieres”

Also: Annual General Meeting

For our final meeting of the season, and in a slight change to our programme, we have Dr Ben Gupta, Consultant Anaesthetist at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust. He will be talking about his interesting work for the humanitarian medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

During his training in the NHS Ben took time out to work for MSF and on 4 separate missions he spent a total of 1 year in the field working as an anaesthetist in both Papua New Guinea and more recently with victims of the Syrian conflict in Jordan.

He has also worked on multiple expeditions and in pre-hospital aeromedical medicine.

He set up the Developing World Anaesthesia course in Bristol in 2012 to train other anaesthetists wanting to work in this area and now directs this course twice yearly at the Royal College of Anaesthetists in London.

Family commitments have stopped him going overseas in the last year but he remains an active member of the MSF-UK association and is currently standing for election to the board of trustees. Ben lives in Hotwells with his wife and daughter and in his spare time he plays in a local brass quintet around the pubs of Bristol!

For further information, please click here.

Next event: Thursday 14 April 2016. The BMLS Legal Debate

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.

Annual Dinner 4 March 2016

On Friday 4 March 2016

THE MERCHANTS’ HALL

The Promenade, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 3NH

Fizz reception with canapés

Delicious 4 course meal plus coffee (details below)

Wines (sparkling, red and white), specially selected to complement the food, included in the ticket price

Catering by Fosters

After Dinner Speaker:- Nazir Afzal OBE

Inclusive ticket price:-

Members £72 (or non-drinker £62)

Members’ first guest £72 (or non-drinker £62)

Additional non-member guests £77(or non-drinker £67)

~ Strictly black tie ~ Start 7.15pm ~ Carriages 11.45pm ~

For more information, please CLICK HERE

To view the menu and apply for tickets, please CLICK HERE

Next meeting: Thursday 21 January 2016

Professor David Nutt (Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London)

‘Legal Highs’

For more information, please click HERE.

Next event: Thursday 26 November

Dr Robert Spencer (Consultant in Public Health & Infectious Diseases)

‘Ebola: Just a rumble in the jungle?’

For our second meeting this season, we have Dr Robert Spencer, Consultant in Public Health & Infectious Diseases.

For more information, click HERE.

Next event: Thursday 22nd October!

Welcome to the new BMLS Season!

For our first meeting of the new season, we have Professor Lois Bibbings, Professor of Law, Gender and History at Bristol University.

Based at the Law School, she is an honorary member of staff in the Centre for Ethics in Medicine at the University of Bristol. She studied at Cardiff University as an undergraduate and postgraduate. Her research focuses upon Law, Gender and History. She has written about violence, sexuality and the body as well as widening participation policy. An interest in men, masculinities and history is reflected in her work on conscientious objectors to military service.

Binding Men: Stories about Violence and Law in Late Victorian England focuses upon five late nineteenth century legal cases involving different forms of male violence (child abuse, prize fighting, murder and cannibalism, sexual assault and ‘wife torture’). She is currently working on articles and a book on WW1 as well as researching the suffragette movement.

She heads the Legal Practice, Criminal, Family and Medical Law Primary Unit within the Law School, which is comprised of staff working in these areas. She spends part of her time working with local school pupils and college students in projects run with the University’s Widening Participation and Student Recruitment Office. Amongst other things, she is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Law and Society, a member of the ESRC Peer Review College and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

See HERE for more details and the flyer

Next event: Thursday 21 May. The Jimmy Saville sexual abuse allegations.

For our final meeting of the season, we have Alan Collins, partner at Hugh James is one of the best known solicitors in the field of child abuse litigation and has acted in many high profile cases, including the Jimmy Savile and Haut de la Garenne abuse scandals. He also specialises in serious personal injury cases including head and spinal injury claims.

Alan represents clients in this country and internationally and has recently been working in Australia, Uganda, Kenya, and California on a series of sexual abuse cases.

His best career moment was acting for the victims of sexual abuse at Green Field House, a children’s home in Berkshire. Occurring in the 1960s, it was considered to have been one of the worse cases ever to have come to public notice. As a result of the investigatory work undertaken by Alan, it was proved that the home had been the centre of what was a paedophile ring. All the victims that he acted for were compensated for the considerable harm they had suffered.

Alan is a fellow of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and a director for the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers (ACAL). ACAL is a support group set up by solicitors and other professionals involved in the field of obtaining compensation for victims of abuse.

Alan regularly appears on television and radio in relation to his cases including the BBC and ITV national news, Radio 4 ‘Today’, and media channels in Australia and US. Alan is a regular speaker on legal issues, and has recently spoken at the National Crime Agency, Aberystwyth University, the ACAL conference, and at a child safeguarding conference.

For further details, please see the BMLS May 2015 flyer

Next event: Thursday 16 April 2015 – The BMLS Ethical Debate

Debating the issue of assisted dying, with a team from Bristol University

With special thanks to our Committee Member, Eugene Lloyd, we look forward to bringing you the BMLS Ethical Debate for our next supper meeting. This is a new idea which we are piloting and we would welcome your support with this event. Prizes will be awarded by our sponsor, Janus Financial Consultancy.

We have 4 medical / law students from Bristol University who will be debating the motion “This house believes that competent adults who are terminally ill should be provided at their request with specified assistance to end their own life.”

Tim, our President and Judith, 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 students 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 students have worked very hard in preparing for it. Hopefully it will a lively and thought provoking evening!
For further information, please see HERE.