- Partners: 34
- Assistants: 67
- Other fee-earners: 43
The Firm Capsticks is one of the UK's leading healthcare law firms, handling a wide range of litigation, projects, employment, public law, commercial and property work for over 200 NHS, regulatory, voluntary and private sector healthcare organisations. Clients include the Department of Health, the General Dental Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Nuffield Health and the Terrence Higgins Trust.
Capsticks has developed an outstanding level of expertise through more than 25 years dedicated practice in the healthcare sector, combined with a modern infrastructure of research, training and data management. The firm holds the ISO 9001:2000 quality assurance standard and was in the first wave of firms to be awarded the Law Society's quality standard LEXCEL. Traditionally well known for its work with strategic health authorities, NHS trusts and PCTs, the firm has developed in line with the changing nature of healthcare.
Recent assignments have included a flagship appointment as advisers to Partnerships UK on its Provider Development Programme supporting nine pilot PCTs in connection with the separation of PCT provider functions from the rest of the PCT; acting for NHS London on the consultation in respect of the future of health services in the capital; and supporting foundation trusts in connection with the acquisition of the business of other NHS Trusts. The firm's Projects Group has a portfolio of completed and ongoing healthcare projects worth over £1.5 billion including many PFI, ISTC and NHS LIFT schemes. The firm has also carried out a number of major urban redevelopment schemes for mixed uses including medipark, retail and residential uses.
Healthcare regulatory work is another of Capsticks' growth areas, with the firm acting for five out of the nine healthcare regulatory bodies in the UK in relation to fitness to practise cases and High Court appeals arising from those cases, as well as commercial, property and HR matters.
Principal Areas of Work The firm's work is divided between the clinical law; commercial; dispute resolution; employment and property departments.
Clinical Law: This team acts for the NHS Litigation Authority and deals with a large volume of clinical law advisory matters such as consent-to-treatment cases, and mental health issues in particular. It can field an exceptionally strong team able to provide a truly comprehensive service. The department has a strong reputation for dealing safely with sensitive and high profile cases such as the Victoria Climbie and the Ayling inquiries and judicial reviews of major service reconfiguration decisions. The department also deals with medical malpractice insurers, including disasters arising from obstetric accidents, which comprise some of the largest PI claims in this country.
Commercial: This team provides full legal support on NHS LIFT, joint venture, healthcare M&A and major procurement projects. The work is carried out in multi-disciplinary teams with members of the property and employment departments. Completed deals include the development of new hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centres, polyclinics, healthcare IT systems and corporate acquisitions and joint ventures. Clinical services contracts and procurement work is a staple of this team that also advises many high profile healthcare bodies on corporate governance and constitutional matters.
Dispute Resolution: This team specialises in the resolution of commercial and property disputes as well as working for healthcare regulatory bodies and a growing number of non-healthcare regulators. The firm was appointed by NHS Counter Fraud Service as the appointed provider of fraud response services to all NHS bodies in 2009.
Employment: This team provides employment law advice, drafting of policies, procedures and contracts and representation in the Employment Tribunal and higher Courts. It also runs an HR consultancy service that provides employee relations advice to NHS Trusts and other employers.
Property: This team carries out major property development and construction work, addressing both the establishment of new clinical facilities, often as part of an area regeneration scheme, and disposal of redundant sites. As part of this work they advise extensively on town and country planning and are expert in documenting s106 and other planning agreements. In the course of their transactions they deal with most of the major house builders, retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury, and a wide range of registered social landlords and other charities. The department also carries out a full range of estate portfolio management work.
Areas of PracticeLitigation: 43%Corporate: 19%Employment: 18%Property: 15%Law Advisory: 6%