Adrian Darbishire of QEB Hollis Whiteman, was awarded Health & Safety Silk of the Year at the Chambers & Partners Annual Bar Awards at the Hilton Hotel last night (2 October) hosted by Giles Brandreth.

Adrian has acted in many workplace gross negligence manslaughter and health and safety cases since appearing in the Hatfield Rail Crash trial in 2005, including the first prosecution for statutory corporate manslaughter in 2011.  This year he has advised clients and appeared as an advocate in many of the high profile and complex investigations and/or cases including defending the M5 firework display organiser, representing an individual charged with gross negligence manslaughter following a death during excavation work, representing a major food processing company at an Inquest following the electrocution of a sub-contractor, acting for a pharmaceuticals company alleged to have supplied controlled drugs in breach of the Misuse of Drugs act,  a high profile corporate manslaughter involving an explosion at a waste recycling plant and acting for a leisure company in a health and safety prosecution following the drowning of a schoolgirl on a supervised inland beach.

Adrian, who said he was ‘thrilled to be selected for the award’, also has a thriving business crime and professional regulatory practice.