Partner, Leigh Day
Kevin has specialised in asbestos cases since 1999. Previously a partner at John Pickering and Partners (later Slater & Gordon) until he joined Leigh Day in 2016.
He is an APIL fellow, APIL accredited asbestos specialist and asbestos assessor and a member of the Law Society PI panel.
Kevin has worked on many of the leading asbestos test cases including:-
- Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Limited and Others [2002] UKHL 22.
- Barker v Corus UK Plc [2006] UKHL 20.
- Ballantine v Newalls Insulation Co. Ltd, CA June 2000 - concerning deductibility of PWCA 1979 payments.
- Rice and Thompson v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry [2007] EWCA Civ 289 – acting with a colleague in a test case to secure the rights of dockworkers. It took two High Court hearings and a Court of Appeal judgment to establish that the Dock Labour Board owed a duty of care to dockers.
He acted in-
- Dowdall v William Kenyon & Sons and 2 others [2014] EWHC 2822 - recovery of damages for a client with mesothelioma who had settled his asbestosis claim on a full and final basis. Successfully overcame the defendants’ arguments on abuse of process, estoppel and limitation (obtaining s.33 discretion despite the case being 13 years out of time).
- Sturdy v James Marmon & Sons, Lawtel, 26/11/2008 - successfully opposed the Defendant’s attempt to reduce damages for PSLA in a mesothelioma claim to below recommended JC guidelines.
- In the Matter of Eagle Star Insurance Company Limited [2006] EWHC 1850 (Ch) – acted for a representative asbestos disease sufferer and intervened on behalf of asbestos victims in relation to proposals by Zurich to re-structure their EL insurance arrangements.
- Hutchings v Invista Holdings (2009), unreported, Liverpool County Court - successful recovery of relatives’ flight costs from Australia to the UK to visit their father with mesothelioma.
Kevin is 15+ years ranked in Chambers & Partners and ranked in Band 1 for Industrial Disease (UK-wide) and Band 1 for Personal Injury: Claimant (Liverpool and surrounds). Listed by the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo as one of the “Scouserati” - the 366 “most influential Scousers,” as part of the Capital of Culture 2008 events.
He is currently instructed by the Asbestos Victims Support Group to secure improvements to ELTO. Has previously made submissions to the All Party Parliamentary Panel on damages reform for asbestos sufferers. He is a member of the DMPS Oversight Committee.
Kevin has a niche practice acting for international clients including several Maltese nationals exposed to asbestos when working for the Royal Navy at their dockyard in Valletta (when Malta was a British colony).
Kevin lives in Ormskirk, near Liverpool and is a long-suffering supporter of Everton FC.