Lewis MacDonald

Inquests & Public Inquiries

Lewis is regularly instructed to act for Interested Parties in Inquests, particularly in medical cases. He is experienced in the Regulatory sphere of advising on evidence arising out of Inquests, and has successfully conducted cases involving complex medical evidence and multiple expert witnesses.

He was instructed for a medical professional in an Inquest where a mentally ill patient murdered a member of the public. The case attracted widespread national media coverage involving criticism of the police and NHS.

He was recently privately instructed to represent a nurse who’s conduct had been found to amount to neglect causing death by a Coroner. In the regulatory proceedings, Lewis was able to expose the flaws in the expert evidence accepted by the Coroner, resulting in the panel finding there was no case to answer against his client.

Lewis has been involved in statutory and non-statutory Inquiries, and has been instructed both for the Inquiry and for interested parties.

He was appointed Assistant to the Inquiry into child safeguarding in St Helena. He worked with Sasha Wass QC and team of safeguarding experts, visiting the British Overseas Territory of St Helena and investigating allegations of widespread sexual abuse of children and safeguarding failings. He assisted in all aspects of the process including interviewing and contact with witnesses, legal research, reviewing documents, and drafting of the Inquiry’s report to the Foreign Secretary. As a result he gained valuable experience in dealing with vulnerable witnesses, the law relating to Maxwellisation, Data Protection and British Overseas Territories.

Lewis was also instructed as part of the Home Office team of counsel for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.