The countdown to the 2024 Personal Injury Awards is on

Anthony Hughes has worked with a number of leading Manchester law firms, becoming a partner in 1995 and a managing partner in 2001. He practised in the litigation sector, specialising in insurance disputes—primarily of a casualty and regulatory nature. 

In 2001, Anthony became managing partner of Ricksons, taking the firm from around £5million per annum in fee income to around £14 million by 2006, at which point he agreed a merger with DWF. 

Having sat on the board at DWF for two years, Anthony was invited to become CEO of Horwich Farrelly, which he did in May 2009.

In January 2014, Anthony formed Jackson Hughes Consulting, offering strategic consultancy advice to the legal, insurance and claims sectors, and has been involved in a number of projects since, including specific merger and acquisition activity. 

In February 2019, he joined Simpson Millar as COO.

Anthony is currently commercial officer with Keller Postman, a US-backed law firm specialising in group actions and consumer redress. He was invited to take over as chair and CEO of The CHO in August 2022, a role he does alongside that with Keller Postman. 

He has held a number of other non-executive positions at organisations such as S&G Response, Infinity Underwriting, Zebra Legal Consulting and Pareto Financial Planning. Anthony remains a non-executive director of niche insurance and mobility services provider Driver Further. 

Jack Ridgway is the Chair of the Association of Costs Lawyers. As Chair, he is responsible for leading the representative body and regulator of last resort for all regulated Costs Lawyers. This work involves regular interaction with the judiciary and either sitting on, or supporting members, on various working groups. 

Jack entered the legal industry in 2011 before qualifying as a Costs Lawyer in 2017. He has had the benefit of working for two external costs firms before moving in-house to Bolt Burdon Kemp in 2015 where is now a Senior Associate.  

Jack has gained experience as the receiving or paying party in a wide variety of matters, such as abuse, clinical negligence, commercial litigation, court of protection, design rights, personal injury, and probate. He regularly undertakes advocacy in the High Court, with a particular focus on costs budgeting and applications during the substantive proceedings. 

Matthew Maxwell Scott is the executive director of the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO), a membership body created in 2019 to represent the interests of consumers as claimants in the civil justice system. 

A former parliamentary candidate and current county councillor, he worked for a decade at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) before becoming speechwriter to the chief executive of RSA Insurance and then to the director-general of the BBC. 

More recently, he was government relations lead for Slater & Gordon before establishing his own consultancy in 2018. He is also a director of the Abbotsford Trust. 

Mike joined the APIL team as Chief Executive in July 2019 after five years as the Chief Executive of the Society of Independent Brewers and, before that, a decade as the Chief Executive of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.

Mike is a seasoned campaigner and leader of membership organisations and has been a key player in various major consumer campaigns and in leading change and strategy development in the not-for-profit sector.

Mike leads the APIL Senior Management Board and the staff, reporting to the Executive Committee, and has led the development and delivery of the strategic plan, ‘Building a Brighter Future for Injured People’.

Pete is a partner at international law firm, DAC Beachcroft, and is the president of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers for 2024. He has almost 25 years’ experience advising a broad range of insurance clients in respect of motor, employers’ liability and public liability claims, with a particular interest in the transport and logistics sector. He is responsible for managing relationships with some of the firm’s key insurance clients.

Working with the firm’s strategic advisory team, Pete advises on a wide range of market issues. He is a regular commentator and panellist on issues impacting the motor insurance market, including civil justice reforms, and the development of automated vehicle technologies and their impact on motor insurers.

Within the firm’s claims solutions group, Pete leads ‘Innovations Lab’, the research and development hub responsible for developing new innovative claims solutions to benefit clients, where he works closely with the firm’s technology law, IT and business improvement and change teams.

Pete has previously chaired FOIL’s motor sector focus team, during which time he was co-opted as a member of MedCo’s Expert Audit and Peer Review sub-committee. He is also a member of the Gibraltar Insurance Institute.

Rachael McGrath lives in Cheshire with her husband and children. Her professional background was working in the media, until the difficult birth of her twins left her unable to work and requiring support from the Birth Trauma Association. As she gradually recovered, Rachael went on to join the BTA’s team in 2015, being appointed as chair in 2023. As well as chairing the BTA, Rachael is the community engagement coordinator for an NHS specialist perinatal and maternal mental health service.

Sharon Allison is a partner and head of medical injury at Ashtons Legal and has extensive experience in all claims arising from medical injury events but specialises in catastrophic birth injury, brain injury and spinal injury claims. She has also recently taken up the post of the first female Chair of the Society for Clinical Injury Lawyers (SCIL). 

Sharon is a fellow of APIL and a specialist on the clinical negligence panel of AvMA.  

Sharon spent a significant part of her early career building expertise in inquest representation, which is now a large part of her team’s medical practice. She developed particular expertise in mental health and patient safety. 

She still spends time with national/regional stakeholders to collaboratively work together on streamlining the litigation process and putting grieving families at the heart of the process. 

Trevor is the Senior Partner at Moore Barlow and Head of Major Trauma. He is an award winning personal injury lawyer with nearly 40 years’ experience. At Moore Barlow he established a dedicated award-winning Major Trauma Service with a focus on rehabilitation which has supported over a thousand patients signposted from Major Trauma Centres which also laid the foundations for a national signposting service. Trevor was also part of the Rehabilitation Working Group responsible for the Rehabilitation Code 2015.

Trevor has been involved in some of the country’s highest profile cases including the Paddington Rail Crash, Croydon Tram disaster, Bath Tipper truck tragedy, In Amenas Terrorist Attack (Algeria), Jimmy Savile Child Abuse cases and the Westminster Terrorist attacks. Presently he represents the bereaved families and many others affected by the Wimbledon Prep School crash tragedy in 2023. Trevor is also one of a few lawyers in the country to have had success in the House of Lord’s with the landmark Employer’s Liability suicide case of Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd., the first case of its type since 1957.

Trevor is ranked in the leading legal directories and has won many professional awards including receiving the Law Society’s “Rising Star: Advocate in the Face of Adversity Award” in 2008 and Rehabilitation First Awards in 2013,2014 and 2016., He was awarded “Solicitor of the Year – Private Practice” at the UK Legal Diversity Awards in 2019 and in 2023, received The Black Talent – Senior Leader Award at the Black Talent Awards. He was also highly commended at the Law Society’s Excellence Awards in 2018 in the “Solicitor of the Year” category.

Trevor appears in the media regularly and is also a regular newspaper reviewer on BBC Radio London. He is also an active campaigner.