Marina Litvinenko


Louise Christian
Louise Christian qualified in 1978 whilst at Lovell White and King Solicitors before moving to Plumstead Community Law Centre between 1979 and 1981. The following period until 1984 was spent as an advisor to the Greater London Council Police Committee after which, in 1985, Louise co-founded Christian Fisher Solicitors with Michael Fisher.

Louise has been instructed in many high profile cases, among the most significant of which were representing the victims of the Marchioness disaster for ten years and being the lead solicitor representing the victims of the Paddington and Southall rail crashes in major public inquiries and successfully conducting compensation claims. Louise is now acting for all the bereaved families in the inquest into the Potters Bar rail crash where Mr Justice Sullivan sitting as Coroner has suggested a joint public inquiry also looking at the recent Grayrigg Train Crash. Louise featured in the recent reported High Court case of Thames Trains v Michael Adams where her negotiating tactics to secure her client an additional $500,000 compensation on top of the $9.3 million on offer were wholly vindicated. Louise is acting for Marina Litvinenko the widow of Alexander Litvinenko and advising the Litvinenko Justice Foundation seeking justice for victims of the poisoning.

Louise has acted in many judicial review cases challenging public authorities and dealt with many significant human rights cases including the leading ECHR case of Osman and the case of Abbasi in the Court of Appeal dealing with the situation of the UK citizens detained in Guantanamo Bay. She is also acting in a forthcoming Court of Appeal case challenging the police tactics of "containment" at a demonstration on May Day 2001.

Louise was awarded the first LAPG/Independent Lawyer Legal Aid Personality of the Year Award in 2004. In the same year she also received a special award from the Law Society/Justice/Liberty for outstanding commitment to the rule of law in acting for persons detained in Guantanamo Bay. She is named as a leader in Chambers directory in the fields of administrative law and human rights. She has twice been included in the Lawyer magazine "Hot 100" awards.

Publications: Co author of "Inquests - a Practitioners Guide" with Leslie Thomas and Danny Friedman to be published by Legal Action Group in Oct 2002.

Specialisation: Louise has a wealth of experience in administrative law/judicial review, inquests, clinical negligence, personal injury including disaster law, actions against government departments and Human Rights Act litigation.



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