Hugh Preston

Hugh has been consistently ranked as a leading junior by Chambers and Partners (now ranked as one of the top 7 juniors in the country) and the Legal 500, in the specialist field of Product Liability involving medical and other products.   Hugh combines this with a specialist clinical negligence practice involving complex and maximum severity claims.   He is regularly instructed in birth injury claims of very high value (£2m+) and has a nationwide practice.  

Hugh also undertakes a substantial volume of complex personal injury litigation.   He has developed a niche specialism acting for private security companies operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and international conflict zones defending severe head injury claims, and he is well known for his general employers liability defendant practice. 

He also practices in general commercial litigation including complex partnership disputes and construction disputes in the TCC.

He is currently instructed without a leader in 3 major product liability group actions acting for several groups of claimants in the PIP breast implant litigation, the DePuy ASR hip implant litigation and Cervarix vaccine damage claims.   He is also instructed in a large number of claims involving other metal on metal hip prostheses, both in clinical negligence and product liability claims.

Hugh is instructed in cases at every level of the civil court system, and has recently appeared in the House of Lords (Smith v Northamptonshire CC, 2009) and in the European Court of Justice (O’Byrne v Aventis Pasteur, 2009), on both occasions acting without a leader against Queens Counsel in cases of significant wider interest.  

For detailed profiles by subject area, select one of the following:

·         Product Liability

·         Clinical Negligence

·         Personal Injury

·         Commercial

What the directories say:

“one of the foremost juniors in the field” (Legal 500 UK 2011)

“a serious player in this field with a growing reputation .... he has a very subtle and tactful approach that’s well thought through, and he also proves very good with clients” (Chambers and Partners 2012)

 “charming and unshowy" (Chambers and Partners 2011)

"hard working, bright and without a whiff of pretence” (Chambers and Partners 2010)

“sound, sensible and knows what he’s doing” (Legal 500 UK 2009)

Recent cases

• Numerous instructions in very high value CP birth injury claims (ongoing).
• DePuy ASR hip litigation (various firms each with groups of claimants) (ongoing)
• PIP breast implant litigation (various firm each with groups of claimants) (ongoing)
• House of Lords ruling on PUWER 1998 (Smith v Northamptonshire County Council, 2009). Click here for case summary
• ECJ ruling on House of Lords reference re. time limits in product liability claims (O’Byrne v Aventis Pasteur).  Hearing in Luxembourg in June 2009, Supreme Court 2010. Click here for case summary 
•  Iraq litigation:   A number of high value (£1m+) personal injury claims against private security companies operating in Iraq [ongoing].
• Cervarix vaccine damage claims (ongoing).
•  ABG1 prosthetic hips litigation (2008)

Memberships

• AVMA
• Personal Injury Bar Association