Head of Specialist Claims receives prestigious award for services to international law

The Head of our Specialist Claims Group has received the Tom Henderson Penguin Award for services to international law.

Mark Harvey, who also leads our London office, was presented with the prestigious prize at the American Association of Justice (AAJ) conference in Seattle in July. It’s an award whose history was based on a visit in 1999 to South Africa by a delegation of international lawyers seeking to help with access to justice. It has been awarded annually since then to lawyers from around the world all of whom are deemed to have contributed substantially to access to justice across international borders.

At a reception hosted by the Pan European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers (PEOPIL) in Seattle, tribute was paid to Mark’s service to the international community and the cross-border nature of the litigation he has led for over thirty years. This has included his first cross border claim arising out of the anti-arthritis drug Opren in 1992, through the Dow Corning breast implants of the 1990s to today’s catastrophic, transport and product related claims in which Mark Harvey, and colleague Katherine Allen, are currently instructed.

Mark Harvey has been attending the AAJ conventions since 2003. APIL (the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) was founded with seed money from AAJ (formerly ATLA) in 1990. Mark, (formerly APIL Secretary but then a member of the AAJ Board of Governors) and one of the founding APIL lawyers, had the honour of reimbursing AAJ its seed money on behalf of APIL in 2010.

Hugh James has been supporting the work of the Association for many years. Andrew Harding, a former partner of the firm and Mark Harvey have both spoken at the AAJ conferences. Mark has chaired several education programmes too as well as chairing the International Practice Section and being a member of the AAJ President’s International Relations Committee.

Mark was elected one of the two UK and Ireland Governors in 2005, becoming the Senior Governor in 2012. He stood down in 2019, being replaced by Hugh James Partner, Katherine Allen, who continues to this day having been re-elected in Seattle.

Katherine has attended the AAJ conventions since 2015 and has very recently achieved two speaking firsts: the first non-American to speak at the Woman Trial Lawyers’ Caucus this year in Palm Springs and similarly at the AAJ Admiralty Section education programme in Seattle.

Supporting AAJ has resulted in the firm representing people around the world with serious personal injury claims, including accidents from tyre failures, metal hips, heart pumps, intraocular lenses, TV related claims, shipping and aircraft incidents as well as having Mark providing expert evidence and representation in the US courts for US lawyers.