Gerard Forlin KC, BL (Ireland)

Silk: 2010 | Call: 1984

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Gerard Forlin KC, BL (Ireland)
Elliot Langdorf, Senior Clerk
> People > Barristers > Gerard Forlin KC, BL (Ireland)

Called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2010 in both the Civil and Criminal law sections, Gerard Forlin KC’s broad practice covers civil, criminal and commercial litigation; environment; fire; corporate governance (including bribery and corruption); major event planning & crowd safety; state, ceremonial and historical events; crisis management; health and safety; aviation; inquests and inquiries; local authority governance and services; and regulatory law. Gerard Forlin KC was also called to the Bar of Ireland in 2020, after passing the Irish Bar Examination.

Gerard currently is instructed in relation to Grenfell Tower, the Shoreham air crash, an F1 case and numerous other cases both in the UK and all over the world.

Gerard is known globally in his various fields of practice and has worked from Vancouver in Canada to Queenstown in New Zealand. Also, from the Falkland Islands and South Georgia in the Antarctic Ocean to Seoul in Korea and Beijing in China. He has worked in over 65 countries, one of only a tiny handful of London Barristers to have ever achieved this.

He has also appeared in court in several jurisdictions across the world and advised numerous other parties from all over the world including airlines, airports, manufacturers, mining companies, fishing companies, water companies, oil and gas companies, and tour companies. Gerard is a member of Cornerstone Climate, our centre of excellence for climate litigation and advice. He has years of experience in prosecuting and defending environmental cases, particularly water pollution cases in the UK and Hong Kong, as well as in the aviation and shipping industry.

Broad area of expertise

  • Civil, criminal and commercial litigation and corporate governance and crisis management: Aviation, fire, professional discipline, product liability, consumer crime, commercial fishing, licensing, corruption and bribery, oil and gas, construction, aviation, transport including railways, fraud, crisis management and inquests.
  • Environment: Oil and gas, environmental crime including water pollution and fishing quotas, and waste offences. He also acts for the Environment Agency on policy issues.
  • Health and safety inquests and inquiries: Public inquiries, fire, major event planning and crowd safety,  human rights and inquests. He has been involved in over 300 fatality cases and has appeared in many of the major cases in this field in the last ten years, both in the UK and abroad.
  • Local authority governance and services: Health and safety, fire, healthcare, environmental matters and inquests and inquires.
  • Regulatory law: Corporate and gross negligence manslaughter, disaster litigation, aviation, railways, shipping, regulatory offences and diving.

Gerard acts for global companies and organisations, local authorities, public bodies and individuals through direct access. He was Special Adviser to the Bar Council on the Corporate Manslaughter Bill (2005), Consultant to a recent Global Aviation Concordat on Aviation Safety, as well as Standing Counsel to numerous organisations in the UK and abroad. Gerard also acts for Crown Departments on Crown Censure (occasional AG nomination) and is a Consultant to the Army and other Government bodies.

Gerard has acted for many of the major UK companies (retail, manufacturing, aviation, transport, tour companies, sporting including F1), regarding various regulatory matters. He has also acted for numerous local authorities and individuals. He is currently also acting for the majority of the families in the pending Inquest into the Shoreham Air Crash when eleven men died after a jet aircraft crashed on a road near Brighton in Sussex in the UK.

He was Special Adviser to the Bar Council on the Corporate Manslaughter Bill (2005), Consultant to a recent Global Aviation Concordat on Aviation Safety, as well as Standing Counsel to numerous PLCs, Unions and Government Departments in the UK and abroad. Gerard also acts for Crown Departments on Crown Censure (occasional AG nomination) and is a Consultant to the Army.

He has been appointed to an International Mediation and Arbitration panel of 14 worldwide members for the Royal Aeronautical Society. There are only two KCs on this global panel. He is also Vice-Chair of the Health and Safety Lawyers Association.

In the last few years, he has been ranked in no fewer than seven areas in the leading independent directories including Health and Safety, Product Liability, Crime, Public Inquiries and Inquests, Consumer Law, Aviation and Environmental Law. He was also awarded the title of Regulatory Barrister of the Year in 2015, 2016 and 2023.

Gerard was awarded President’s Commendation at the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management’s ‘2020 Excellence Awards’. He is the first lawyer to ever win this award.

Gerard has acted on some of the most high-profile regulatory and health and safety cases in the last 10 years, both in the UK and internationally, including:

  • Grenfell Tower inquiry
  • Watford Train Crash
  • Southall Train Crash
  • Ladbrook Grove/Paddington Train Crash
  • Hillgrove School/James Porter: Leading Case on “Risk”
  • The DVT Litigation
  • Teebay Train Disaster
  • Barrow Legionnaires Case (corporate manslaughter/gross negligence manslaughter)
  • Hatfield Train Crash
  • Purley Train Crash
  • Faversham Coach Crash
  • Britannia Air Crash
  • Lift fatality in the City of London – acting for ThyssenKrupp
  • Inquest in the Falklands (death in South Georgia) for an international tour company
  • Recently involved in a high profile regulatory fishing case in the Falklands
  • Alton Towers
  • Acting in a global Helicopter regulatory matter
  • Currently retained in the MH370 aviation disaster case in Asia
  • IICSA Independent Inquiry into child sexual abuse
  • The Shoreham Airshow Disaster
  • Advising on the Notting Hill Carnival, official state ceremonial, and other major sporting and other historical events
  • A large scale commercial case for a series of local authorities with regulatory implications
  • Motorsports cases
  • Test case on the CDM regulations 2015
  • Numerous other inquests/inquiries for government and private clients

Gerard is called to the Bar in Australia and is an overseas member of State Chambers in Sydney. He was also a member of Maxwell Chambers in Singapore where he, until recently, had his own room. He was previously Senior Crown Counsel, Hong Kong. He is also called to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands and as of December 2020, was called to the Bar of Ireland after passing the Irish Bar exams.

Education

London School of Economics LLB (Hons) and LLM
Trinity Hall, Cambridge University M.Phil.
University College London Diploma in Air and Space Law

Expertise

    One of the doyens of the health and safety market. He is very charismatic.

    Chambers UK Bar (2022)

    A ferocious advocate who leaves no stone unturned, he has an incredible capacity to assimilate volumes of complex and complicated evidence.

    Legal 500 (2022)

    Gerard is very knowledgeable in this particular field and is very thorough in his advice.

    Legal 500 (2022)

About Gerard

  • Lectures & Publications

    In the last seven years alone Gerard has practised, lectured or consulted in over thirty five countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Germany, Korea, the United States, the British Virgin Islands, China, the Netherlands, Scotland, Singapore, Malaysia, the Middle East, the Philippines, Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia, Ireland, the Falklands and many other jurisdictions.

    Between 2015 and 2019, Gerard undertook a series of lectures for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UN and ASEAN on the UK Bribery Act in Australia and all over Asia. In 2019, he gave over 40 lectures to various Companies, Government Departments and Regulators. He has spoken in Hungary, Kazakhstan, Korea and Australia. He has also published a series of articles on Health and Safety, ISO 45001/ISO 45003 and other regulatory fields.

    He also spoken on expert panels on health and safety and environmental law at the International Bar Association annual conferences in Vancouver, Madrid, Rome, Seoul and Miami. He is speaking at the IBA event in Paris in November 2023.

    He is an actor and scriptwriter and often does courtroom mock trials for private clients, including Government Departments.

    Gerard has published over 100 articles and authored “Corporate Liability: work related deaths and criminal prosecutions (3rd Edition) Bloomsbury (2014)”. He is a regular spokesperson on disaster matters and regulatory matters on TV and radio channels such as CNN, BBC and Sky.

  • Education
    • London School of Economics LLB (Hons) and LLM
    • Trinity Hall, Cambridge University M.Phil.
    • University College London Diploma in Air and Space Law
  • Client Testimonials

    “The expertise of Gerard is pretty amazing. If it goes pear-shaped, you need this guy on speed dial. He is the most demanded workplace, health and safety barrister in the world today, acting on the Grenfell Tower inquiry, the MH370 and Shoreham disasters” – Jillian Hamilton, Managing Director, Manage Damage (Australia).

    “I attended the Safety Governance session run by the Australian Institute of Company Directors in Brisbane. […] I found the presentation by Gerard Forlin KC to be high energy, jam-packed with quality content, and very engaging. If you get the chance to hear Gerard speak- don’t think twice!” – Helen P., CFIOSH, Partner, CosmanParkes.

  • Directory Quotes
    • “His knowledge and experience is highly rated.” Chambers and Partners 2023 – Health & Safety
    • “Gerard is a great advocate, brilliant with juries, and good with clients.” Legal 500 2023 – Health & Safety
    • “A very strong and persuasive advocate, who fights every step of the way to get the best for the families.” Legal 500 2023 – Inquests and Inquiries 
    • “One of the doyens of the health and safety market. He is very charismatic.” Chambers and Partners 2022 – Health & Safety
    • “A ferocious advocate who leaves no stone unturned, Gerard has an incredible capacity to assimilate volumes of complex and complicated evidence and understand the issues. He has a lovely client manner and fights for his clients.” Legal 500 2022 – Aviation
    • “Gerard is very knowledgeable in this particular field and is very thorough in his advice. He is good with clients and reacts to what they say.” Legal 500 2022 – Health & Safety
    • “Very experienced.” Chambers and Partners 2021 – Health & Safety 
    • “Informative and extremely knowledgeable; tenacious but always with the utmost respect. He is approachable both from a solicitor and client point of view. He is good with clients explaining processes and his way of thinking and reasoning for decisions or plans of action.” The Legal 500 2021 – Aviation
    • “Terribly engaging and very generous with his time. He did a great job of holding the client’s hand, and they liked his proactivity.” Chambers and Partners 2020
    • “Very articulate and forceful in his submissions.”  Chambers and Partners 2019 – Health & Safety
    • “A highly regarded advocate with an international practice.” The Legal 500 2018 – Health & Safety
    • “He has acted in high-profile and sensitive cases, including Grenfell Tower and MH370.” Legal 500 2018 – Product Liability
    • “One of the most compelling advocates that you could ever see in a courtroom.” Chambers and Partners 2018
    • “Ahead of everyone else.” Chambers and Partners 2018
    • “An entertaining character with excellent interpersonal skills. An established silk who has expert knowledge and undertakes complex health and safety cases, many of which concern fatalities. He is regularly in demand and appears in the most difficult of inquests.” Chambers and Partners 2018
    • “Excellent on his feet.” Legal 500 2017 – Product Liability
    • ‘“He maintains a busy practice with an international angle.” Legal 500 2017 – Health and  Safety
    • “He’s a powerful advocate.” “He is equipped with a laser-focused mind and has a great depth of knowledge in health and safety law.” Chambers and Partners 2017
    • “Gerard Forlin QC is a charming and very persuasive advocate.” Chambers and Partners 2016
    • Gerard “has a broad practice that covers not just health and safety but also areas such as environment, transport and product liability.” Chambers and Partners 2016
    • “A very engaging and vastly experienced advocate.” Legal 500 2016
    • “A great court performer and charmer” Legal 500 2016
    • “He communicates very well with a jury, and retains a sense of humour without losing any of his gravitas. He is very focused on the client’s hopes and ambitions.” Chambers and Partners 2015
    • “Highly knowledgeable and an excellent advocate.” Legal 500 2015
    • “A global health and safety expert.” Legal 500 2015
    • “An able, experienced practitioner and a good advocate” “He is one to have on your side during any investigation into a workplace death.” Chambers and Partners 2014
    • “A great inquest advocate, able to engage with juries in a unique way” Legal 500 2014
  • Services

    In the last few years alone Gerard has practised, lectured or consulted in over twenty countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Hungary, Korea, France, the United States, the British Virgin Islands, China, the Netherlands, Scotland, Singapore, Malaysia, the Middle East, the Philippines, Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia, Ireland, the Falklands and many other jurisdictions. Between 2015 and 2019, Gerard undertook a series of lectures for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UN and ASEAN on the UK Bribery Act in Australia and all over Asia.

    He has published over 100 articles and authored “Corporate Liability: work related deaths and criminal prosecutions (3rd Edition) Bloomsbury (2014)”. The 4th edition will be published in 2023. He is a regular spokesperson on disaster matters and regulatory matters on TV and radio channels such as CNN, BBC and Sky. He is also an actor and script writer.He has appeared in many documentaies both in the UK and abroad, and is currently working on a major new documentary.

  • Publications
  • Notable Cases

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