Kate Fawell-Comley

Kate has spent her entire legal career at Hill Dickinson, having trained in the Manchester office prior to qualifying into the London team in 2017. She has held Higher Rights of Audience (Civil Proceedings) since 2018. 

She has a broad experience in healthcare law, but a particular interest and experience in representing clients at inquests (conducting her own advocacy). Her experience is wide-ranging and includes inquests relating to deaths in mental health and acute care settings (including urgent care / 111 and maternity inquests), and deaths in police and prison custody. It includes Article 2 inquests and inquests held with a jury, and she frequently appears alongside senior counsel representing other Interested Persons. Clients include NHS Trusts, private providers and insurers. She is known for her supportive approach, which is welcomed by witnesses and clients alike.

Kate was recently appointed as an Assistant Coroner in West Sussex, Brighton & Hove. She also specialises in dealing with claims linked to inquests, in negligence or under the Human Rights Act 1998, and leads on dealing with these claims for NHS Resolution. 

Kate has provided training to clients on a variety of topics, but in particular delivers mock inquest training on a regular basis. She acts as a mentor to junior members of the team as well as having been and continuing to be a mentor to a number of client contacts. She also has experience in advising upon serious incident and root cause analysis investigations, lesson learning and complaints handling. 

Kate also has previous experience in relation to Court of Protection matters, in particular proceedings brought pursuant to section 21A of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 relating to patients receiving Continuing Healthcare funding, including conducting own advocacy at hearings and RTMs.

Kate has experience representing the Care Quality Commission in appeals relating to care standards brought in the First Tier Tribunal. In addition, she has spent over a year on secondment in the legal services teams at various NHS trusts – responding to healthcare advisory queries, managing claims, inquests and other legal issues.

Kate studied law with French law at University College London and subsequently completed her LPC at the University of Law, Manchester. In her free time, she holds a senior voluntary role with Girlguiding UK – the largest charity in the UK for women and girls.