Ross Beaton
Year of call
2013
Memberships
- Employment Law Association
- Industrial Law Association
- Employment Law Bar Association
- Administrative Law Bar Association
- Bar Human Rights Committee
- Inner Temple
- South Eastern Circuit
Education
- Bar Professional Training Course (Very Competent), Kaplan Law School (2013)
- Graduate Diploma in Law (Distinction), City Law School (2012)
- MPhil, International Relations, Balliol College, Oxford (2011)
- Certificat International d’Etudes Politiques, Sciences Po, Paris (2007)
- MA Philosophy & French (First Class), Balliol College, Oxford (2006)
Instructing Ross Beaton
For more information please contact our clerks by calling +44 (0)20 7242 3555.
Ross Beaton is an experienced advocate in employment and discrimination, inquests and inquiries, personal injury and clinical negligence.
Ross now primarily acts for institutions and is experienced in handling complex and sensitive cases for police and local authority clients.
He regularly handles multi-week inquests and employment trials as sole counsel. In employment law, he is a contributing author to Harvey and Tolley’s. In inquest law, he is a contributing author to Coroner’s Investigations and Inquests. He has appeared in the Employment Appeal Tribunal on multiple occasions, most recently in Ajao v Commerzbank & ors [2024] EAT 11.
As well as appearing as sole counsel, he enjoys working as part of a team on heavy matters. He has previously been instructed on the Undercover Police Inquiry and spent a year as an employed barrister for the Government Legal Department, handling group litigation arising out of military operations overseas.
Outside chambers, Ross is a long-standing trustee of the Brixton Advice Centre, a case reviewer for Advocate, and an Advocacy Trainer for Inner Temple.
Legal Expertise
Employment
Employment
Ross regularly acts in complex employment and discrimination cases. He is experienced in dealing with discrimination, whistleblowing, and ‘ordinary’ unfair dismissal. Recent notable case examples include:
- Appearing for the Claimant in a reported EAT decision setting out the principles applicable to anonymity orders where there are contested allegations of sexual misconduct – Ajao v Commerzbank & ors [2024] EAT 11
- Appearing for the Claimant in a whistleblowing case, resisting an appeal based on delay in producing the judgment – Virgin Active v Hughes [2023] EAT 130
- Appearing for a successful Respondent coach company in a complex TUPE transfer case (2023)
- Appearing for the successful Respondent Ministry of Justice in a multi week constructive dismissal and race discrimination case (2023)
- Appearing for the Claimant in an appeal based on alleged unfairness in the conduct of a hearing where he had been a litigant in person – Leacy v Building Craft College [2022] EAT 59
Ross is also experienced in stress at work litigation conducted in the civil courts, having acted as sole counsel in settling multiple such claims for six figure sums. He is willing to consider acting on CFAs in appropriate cases.
Inquests & Inquiries
Inquests & Inquiries
Ross is an experienced inquest barrister who regularly deals with complex inquests, often involving Article 2 and juries, from the pre-inquest review stage through to conclusion. Whereas the majority of his inquest and inquiries work is now for institutional clients such as the police and local authorities, for the first 10 years of his career he mainly acted for bereaved families in cases involving psychiatric care and baby death cases.
His recent inquest cases include:
- representing a local authority in a jury inquest arising from psychiatric issues said to have been exacerbated by a lack of suitable housing for discharge;
- representing a police client in an inquest following the death of an elderly man who had gone missing whilst suffering from serious confusion;
- representing police clients in multiple ongoing inquests involving death following police contact;
- representing families in deaths of their babies following failings in management of their delivery and neonatal care;
- representing the family in a three week death in custody care raising issues of management of suicide risk.
Ross is an author of the practitioners’ text Coroners’ Investigations and Inquests. In addition to his inquest experience as above, Ross spent over a year working on the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
Notable Inquests & Inquiries cases
Inquest 1 (2021)
One-week inquest into the death of a new born baby following repeated failures during the delivery process. Received substantial local and national press coverage.
Inquest 2 (2021)
Two-day inquest into the death of a new born baby following the failure to admit his mother to the required specialist centre for delivery.
Inquest 3 (2021)
Three-day inquest into the death of a new born baby following a failure to place him on the required care pathway.
Inquest 4 (2021)
Three-day inquest into the death of a teenager from blood clotting after he was not examined by his GP due to covid restrictions in place at the time.
Inquest 5 (2021)
Three-day inquest into the death of a toddler as a result of birth injuries following an extensive delay in delivery.
Inquest 6 (2021)
Three-week inquest into multiple linked deaths arising from a specialist procedure. Counsel for one of the families.
Inquest 7 (2022)
One week inquest into the death of a premature baby following the misplacement of a feeding tube.
Inquest 8 (2022)
Three-week jury inquest into a death in custody raising issues of the mental health care available in prisons during the covid-19 pandemic.
Personal Injury
Personal Injury
Ross now specialises in acting for Defendants in personal injury claims, the exception to this being claims for psychiatric injury arising from stress at work where he is willing to consider acting for Claimants on a CFA basis in appropriate cases. He is an experienced trial advocate, having primarily acted for Claimants across the whole range of personal injury claims for the first decade of his career.
Ross is experienced in appearing for institutional Defendants, including local authorities and police forces, before Circuit Judges and High Court Masters. His recent work includes case management of a complex claim against police, achieving strike out of a fatal accident claim brought without letters of administration having been obtained, and trial of a Highways Act claim involving life changing injuries. During the first decade of his career, he frequently appeared across the country in lower value road traffic, Highways Act, and Occupiers’ Liability cases, often conducting multiple trials a week.
Clinical Negligence
Clinical Negligence
Ross now acts exclusively for Defendants in clinical negligence cases.
For the first decade of his career, he mainly acted for Claimants. Over the course of his career, he has pleaded and acted in a wide variety of cases, often valued in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. These have ranged across damages claims for families who have lost loved ones following inadequate psychiatric care, substandard care following cardiac arrest, and delay in diagnosis of cancer, families who have lost babies due to inadequate management of delivery, and patients who have suffered serious injury during surgery.
Memberships
- Employment Law Association
- Industrial Law Association
- Employment Law Bar Association
- Administrative Law Bar Association
- Bar Human Rights Committee
- Inner Temple
- South Eastern Circuit
Education
- Bar Professional Training Course (Very Competent), Kaplan Law School (2013)
- Graduate Diploma in Law (Distinction), City Law School (2012)
- MPhil, International Relations, Balliol College, Oxford (2011)
- Certificat International d’Etudes Politiques, Sciences Po, Paris (2007)
- MA Philosophy & French (First Class), Balliol College, Oxford (2006)
Instructing Ross Beaton
For more information please contact our clerks by calling +44 (0)20 7242 3555.
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