A Few Words
About Us
Exceptional Service
Independent Experts
Our aim is to provide honest, balanced expertise.
As one of our lead consultants, Ian MacKendrick is a Counsellor and a SOLLA accredited Chartered Financial Planner with 30 years financial expertise:
“I am uniquely positioned to specialise and advise the most vulnerable people in the UK, their families and legal advisers.
I am a Chartered Financial Planner, Dementia Friend, hold the Statement of Professional Standing and specialise in advising on the finances for the Elderly, Vulnerable and those in receipt of Damages awards. I take care to provide an honest and straightforward approach.
Outside of work, I love spending time with my daughter Fabienne and dog Lola. I keep fit’ish, play ‘veteran’ football, a bit of golf and cricket and generally love to be outside in the fresh air and going for a walk.”
Fellow & Chartered Financial Planner
Grade A Expert Witness
Having been involved in many hundreds of cases, acting for the Claimant, Defendant and as a joint expert, Ian has significant experience in providing expert reports of the highest standard on pension loss, financial accommodation (Post RvJ), cost of financial advice, advising on the suitability of retaining funds outside of the CFO, periodical payments and the financial structure of damages awards.
Meet the Team
Ian MacKendrick
Independent Financial adviser & Expert Witness
Ian is an experienced Financial Planner and Expert Witness, he is a trained counsellor and SOLLA accredited Chartered Financial Planner. He has acted as an expert witness on hundreds of cases, providing expert reports and commentary on Pension Loss, Loss of Income, Accommodation (Post RvJ), Cost of Financial Advice, Periodical Payments and the financial structure of damages awards. He can attend JSM’s and can also help assess settlement offer viability.
Ian has a vast experience in dealing with a wide range of complex pension schemes and has particular experience in working with defined benefit pensions.
He is also trusted by solicitors and barristers involving child cases, where the child’s money may be better managed outside of the Court Funds Office. He is regularly invited to lecture and provide training to the OPG, Charities, Law firms, Barristers and their supporting bodies in an approachable style that can help complex subject matters become understandable. Ian offers a free initial chat/viability check service and is confident under questioning and in the production of joint statements.
Stephen Farnfield
Director, Independent Financial adviser & Expert Witness
Stephen has been an expert to the court for the last 12 years and has worked in financial services since 2000 when he entered the industry working for Invesco. He is a specialist
Financial Planner working with vulnerable individuals and their support teams. He has acted as an expert witness on hundreds
of cases, providing expert reports and commentary on Pension Loss, Loss of Income, Accommodation (Post RvJ), Cost of
Financial Advice, Periodical Payments and the financial
structure of damages awards.
Stephen is happy to attend JSM’s and can also help assess
settlement offer viability. Stephen is instructed on a wide range
of different value cases and is instructed by both Claimant and
Defendants, with quantum ranging from as little as £50,000 to
those in excess of £40m. Stephen has a particular interest in
and experience of working on Cerebral Palsy Cases. He is well
known for his training sessions that he delivers regularly to
litigation teams up and down the country as well as online.
Stephen offers a free initial viability check service, so that
solicitors can talk through a case on the phone or video call to
then confidently move forwards with the right approach.
Stephen has given evidence in court on several occasions and is
comfortable and confident under questioning.
Jeremy Rowe
Consultant, Independent Financial Adviser and Expert Witness
Areas of Expertise:
- Pensions on Divorce
- Financial Advice miss-selling/negligence
Jeremy is a qualified Independent Financial Adviser with over 25 years’ experience within the UK financial service industry. He has worked at some of the worlds most respected financial institutions as well as smaller boutique investment companies and financial planners.
He holds advanced qualifications in pensions as well as being an Accredited Later Life Adviser through the Society of Later Life Advisers and has significant experience in dealing with later life issues, powers of attorney and deputyship cases.
As a member of Resolution (a community of family justice professionals who work with families and individuals to resolve issues in a constructive way) he has provided dozens of Pension on Divorce reports on a Single Joint Expert basis with an emphasis on reducing conflict in an emotionally charged environment.
Jeremy’s areas of expertise include opining on Professional negligence (Investments, Pensions, Powers of attorney, Deputyship orders and divorce matters) as well as fraud within in UK Financial services.
He has provided CPR part 35 expert witness reports on behalf of the Claimant, the Defendant and as a Single Joint Expert. He also has experience of giving evidence in court.
Jeremy offers a free initial viability check service so that solicitors can discuss a case in advance of instruction to ensure that his expertise is a good match for the case in question.
Julian Deans
Police intelligence & Drug Expert
I am driven, infectious and highly motivated leader. My personal traits were moulded in my formative years in HM Forces, before I joined Sussex Police in 1997. I’ve been a detective for most of my career and have led proactive teams in covert investigations. At Brighton I worked on an organised crime team and saw the need to have expert ownership of heroin related deaths. As such all heroin deaths came to my team to investigate. This helped reduce the numbers of deaths (per head of population) to remove Brighton from the dubious title of ‘Drug Death Capital of Europe’.
During this time I qualified as a Drug Expert Witness and supplied numerous statements to Magistrates, Crown and Coroners Courts as that expert.
I also sat on the board of the Drugs Commission for B&H as an expert advisor.
The skills I have as a risk manager and leader are an asset to any employer. I thrive on tough pressured decisions.
I’m highly motivated and really enjoy creating teams that share that motivation and desire to get jobs done.
Ali Gillham
Medico Legal Experience:
Alison started undertaking medicolegal work in 2013. Alison has worked independently through a large national organisation providing Rehabilitation and Care Expert reports and Physiotherapy Expert reports. She has written approximately 120 reports since starting this work.
Her main focus is on the following types of injury:
• Chronic pain including neck and low back pain, brachial plexus, chronic widespread pain, complex regional pain syndrome
• Cauda equina syndrome • Amputees
• Multi-trauma orthopaedic injuries
She has written a number of reports for Court as a Case Manager, chaired case review meetings, and appeared in Court as a Witness of Fact, instructed by the claimant for a client with complex disability.
Clinical Experience:
Alison is based in Sussex and has been a qualified physiotherapist since 1987. She worked at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead prior to undertaking further post graduate qualifications in Health Education and Health Promotion at Leeds University.
Alison has worked in community-based services since that time with a wide variety of client groups including people with learning disability, chronic physical disability and more lately has developed a specialism in care and rehabilitation for people with chronic pain.
She is Clinical Director of a community-based service providing rehabilitation for individuals with chronic pain.
Alison takes on a mentoring role, training and supervising fellow therapists. Moreover, she has conducted in excess of 600 assessments and produced reports for the Department for Work and Pensions Access to Work scheme. Additionally, she offers her expertise as a pain specialist for Connect Health Pain Services as an Advanced Practitioner providing assessment and clinical specialist intervention and running Pain Management Programmes.
Throughout her career, Alison has predominantly worked in the assessment and treatment of individuals in community and workplace settings. She has held senior clinical roles in various multidisciplinary community teams. Her experience encompasses the assessment and provision of care as a case manager for clients with head injuries. Furthermore, Alison possesses significant expertise in manual handling and evaluating client equipment and care requirements within this domain.
Of special note is Alison’s passion for pain management, rehabilitation, and the ergonomic needs of individuals in a work environment. She maintains her commitment to professional development by actively participating in various training courses and has undertaken a number of medicolegal training days, including Courtroom Experience. She has provided training and given talks at various medicolegal conferences and events.
Dawn Slater
Ms Slater has over 30 years experience and is skilled in handling complex financial matters. As well as through being a financial expert she has experience of the Court via her previous role as a Police Officer. Her areas of focus include professional negligence, loss of earnings, pensions on divorce, and pension loss arising from personal injury. Ms Slater accepts Claimant, Defendant, and joint instructions, ensuring a comprehensive and balanced perspective is presented in Court.
Financial Experience
Dawn is a professionally qualified Financial Planner with 34 years of experience. She has consistently demonstrated expertise across the vast landscape of investments, pensions, and financial planning. Throughout her career, she has championed the cause of good financial advice in the UK.
During her previous role with the Police, Ms Slater gained valuable firsthand experience with the intricacies of the Court system, sharpening her analytical and communication skills.
Dawn holds the G60 pension transfer qualification, a mandatory FCA requirement for certain pension transfers, including those from occupational schemes. This expertise, coupled with her specific experience in advising on defined benefit pension transfers, positions her as a keen observer of the ongoing pension transfer litigation landscape arising from instances of poor financial advice.
Unwavering commitment to professional development is evident in her qualifications earned through the Chartered Insurance Institute, further bolstered by her current Statement of Professional Standing. She consistently maintains her extensive pension expertise through ongoing CPD required for Chartered Financial Planner accreditation.
Dawn ran her own IFA business from 2010 to 2022, successfully orchestrating numerous final salary pension scheme transfers. She actively focuses on developing her Expert Witness business, leveraging her unique skillset to offer valuable insights in legal matters. Dawn’s professional journey is distinguished by an unwavering commitment to ethical advice and exemplary service. Her impeccable career record, devoid of any complaints, stands as a testament to her dedication and integrity.
Carolyn Hunnisett
Care Expert
Carolyn is a vastly experienced and qualified Independent Mental Capacity Assessor and NHS CHC expert, who takes particular pleasure empowering client’s, giving them a voice and looking at the person and their case holistically and compassionately.
Uniquely, Carolyn is dual qualified in health and law: Law degree, Called to the bar, (2002), MSc. in Health perspectives on the Mental Capacity Act, Pg. dip in Advocacy and Pg. dip in Occupational therapy.
She has over 20 years of experience in NHS CHC cases and started Age Concern Oxfordshire’s inventive independent advice service where in addition to successfully representing many clients; was a member of the Ombudsman Management Group; wrote a report for the Health Select Committee and would meet with the Ombudsman to detail her experiences of hundred’s of cases.
As Advocacy Service Manager, Carolyn went to the Consultation process of the Mental Capacity Act highlighting the needs of carers and the elderly.
As an Occupational therapist, she has trained and worked with people who suffer with Strokes, neurological conditions, dementia and psychiatric conditions.
As a Community Care lawyer, Carolyn specialised in NHS CHC advice, advocacy and representation at NHS England stage. She wrote a Lexis Nexus article on the Care Act and has developed and designed a legal charter for an Art Disability organisation.
Her dual qualification in health and law means that she is not only able to have insight required to understand a person’s health, but also how best to ensure the law is followed to achieve what’s needed.
With professional clients they know Carolyn is tenacious with her health analysis, puts forward confident measured recommendations and can quickly respond to complex cases.
Outside of work, she is a mummy to a beautiful bubbly girl who experiences Autism and ADHD and knows the challenges carers face with home life, diagnosis and chronic illnesses. She loves indie rock music and particularly the White Stripes and Led Zeppelin.
