Eleanor Sanderson
Expert regulatory and corporate defence barrister
Eleanor Sanderson has featured in Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500 for many years as a leader at the Bar for her expertise in the field of regulatory crime. Her specialist practice focuses around complex and high-profile proceedings in the fields of regulatory investigation and prosecution, inquests and inquiries, and professional disciplinary law. She is renowned for her subject matter expertise, straightforward advice, effective advocacy and client care skills.
If the field of regulatory criminal defence, Eleanor is instructed by both companies and individuals to defend prosecutions brought by the Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency, Fire Authorities, Care Quality Commission, Civil Aviation Authority, and Local Authorities and the Crown Prosecution Service. She has huge experience in cases that attract public, press, and political interest. She acts from the pre-charge stage to the conclusion of proceedings and any appeal, and is able to advise in respect of how related civil or public law proceedings will impact upon criminal allegations.
She is similarly expert in proceedings before the Coroner’s court and in public inquiries. Her inquest experience includes acting for a wide range of interested persons, individuals, companies and public bodies, in hearings lasting from one day to several years, and draws upon her regulatory specialisms. She is instructed to act in public inquiries where their subject matter intersects with her regulatory practice.
Eleanor also specialises in the defence of professionals subject to disciplinary proceedings by their regulatory bodies, including those brought by the General Medical Council, General Dental Council, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, General Optical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council. Her specialism brings with it an understanding of medical practice across a range of disciplines, with exceptional expertise in understanding and challenging expert evidence.
Eleanor was educated at New College, Oxford and was called to the Bar in 2005. She is a former consultant editor of the Lloyds Law Reports and in 2023, was appointed to sit as a Recorder of the Crown Court.
Practice Areas
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Eleanor specialises in regulatory criminal proceedings and defending the most serious prosecutions brought under health and safety and fire safety law. She is ranked by Chambers and Partners in “Band 1”.
She acts on behalf of companies and directors in relation to allegations of gross negligence and corporate manslaughter, and serious breaches of sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act. Her clients extend from family-run businesses to publicly listed global companies, operating within a range of sectors including the leisure, residential, retail, construction, manufacturing, agricultural, real estate, hospitality, healthcare, transport, recycling, entertainment, tech, and nuclear industries. In addition to representation at trial, Eleanor also advises pre-charge and in challenges to prohibition and improvement notices.
Eleanor has similar expertise in the field of fire safety regulation and prosecutions under the Fire Safety Order, and frequently acts in technical cases concerning matters such as causation and spread of fire, building construction and Approved Document B, manufacture and storage of explosives, emergency response, and the polluting effects of fire. Her experience in this area includes claims for Judicial Review in relation to enforcement activity by Fire Authorities, and referral of a technical dispute to the Secretary of State for determination. Her experience in this field overlaps with her inquest and inquiry expertise, having acted in the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, and the 3 month inquest into the Lakanal tower block fire.
Further safety law experience includes acting for the global online retailer Amazon in proceedings brought by the Civil Aviation Authority for contraventions of Dangerous Goods regulations.
Her practice in the field incorporates expertise in the defence of healthcare providers and individuals for prosecutions brought by the Care Quality Commission. For further details please see “Healthcare Regulatory” below.
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Eleanor has significant experience in trials involving gross negligence and corporate manslaughter, having acted in a number high profile cases. Her practice in this area incorporates her expertise as a Leader at the Bar in the field of health and safety, and she has both advised and acted for companies and individuals in respect of manslaughter allegations.
She brings expertise from a safety and environmental practice spanning the range of industries including leisure, residential, retail, construction, manufacturing, agricultural, real estate, hospitality, transport, recycling, entertainment, tech, and nuclear industries, in which she benefits to significant technical expertise. She is also able to offer huge depth of experience in respect of the healthcare sector and allegations of clinical negligence that give rise to manslaughter investigations and prosecutions.
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Eleanor defends prosecutions brought by the Environment Agency and local authorities including in relation to breaches of Environment. Her expertise extends to matters pre-charge, including advice as to the effect and required response to section 108 notices, at interview under caution, and at proceedings thereafter.
She has has expertise in the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016, Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Water Resources Act 1991, and has defended allegations in respect of breach of permitting conditions, breach of duty of care in respect of waste transfer and at the intersection of the Permitting Regulations and the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. She also acts for landowners issued with notices to clear controlled waste.
As regards investigations, Eleanor provides advice as to the extent of the Environment Agency’s investigative powers and recently acted for one of five water company employees charged together with their employer, with obstruction of Environment Agency officers at visits to Waste Water Treatment Works, both at trial and subsequently at the High Court (Queens Bench Division).
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Eleanor has extensive inquest experience and has acted for a range of individuals, companies, public authorities and investigating authorities in inquests lasting from a single day’s hearing, to those stretching over a number of years. She also acts in Public Inquiries where issues of causation of death arise.
In respect of safety law, she is often instructed on behalf of companies, directors and employees where an inquest follows a regulators’ investigation, and where it is anticipated that criminal charges may be brought after the inquest. Her experience in the fields of health and safety and fire safety provide her with particular insight as to the potential ramifications of inquest conclusions, and any proceedings that are likely to follow thereafter.
Her practice in Coronial law is complemented by her expertise in healthcare regulatory law, and she frequently appears on behalf of doctors, healthcare providers, and care homes when the care provided comes within the scope of a Coroner’s inquiry.
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Eleanor has wide ranging experience in the field of healthcare regulatory law, incorporating the following areas:
Acting for healthcare and social care providers in prosecutions brought by regulators including the Health and Safety Executive, the Care Quality Commission, the Fire and Rescue Services and enforcing Local Authorities, including where fatalities have resulted;
Acting in inquiries and inquiry-style inquests where medical causation of death and alleged health and safety failings are in issue, including where Article 2 ECHR is engaged;
Acting for doctors, healthcare providers and local authorities at inquests where questions are raised in respect of allegedly deficient care and/or health and safety failings;
Acting for doctors, dentists, nurses, optometrists and other healthcare professionals in disciplinary proceedings before their professional regulators, including where death is alleged to have resulted from deficient care;
Defence of allegations of gross negligence and corporate manslaughter.
Eleanor’s expertise extends to a wide range of medical and medico-legal issues. She has acted for healthcare professionals in cases where deaths have arisen from a variety of causes including post-surgical complications, anaesthetic events, undiagnosed cancers, respiratory failure and medication errors, and in many cases where difficult clinical decisions have been required such as in relation to the commencement of end of life care, risk assessment of patients on psychiatric wards, and whether or not to intubate.
She is familiar with the many challenges facings healthcare and social care providers and has defended in prosecutions focusing on a wide range of issues including matters as diverse as occupational health policy, infection control and use of single-use items, legionella prevention, screening of staff for blood-borne viruses, falls risk assessment in dementia units, staff training in respect of mobility aids, the need for DOLs and nursing of patients without capacity, risk assessment of smoking in social care settings, and managing means of escape in case of fire.
Her inquest practice has provided her with extensive experience of pathology evidence including where multiple experts have given evidence and cause of death has remained in dispute. Her expertise in the field of health and safety and fire safety has brought her a detailed understanding of the complexities of their interaction with the Health and Social Care (Regulated Activities) Regulations and the division of investigative responsibilities.
For additional details of Eleanor’s practice in this area, see also her entries under “Inquests and Inquiries” and “Professional Discipline”.
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Eleanor has a wealth of experience in the field of professional disciplinary law and appears before a wide range of regulatory bodies acting for both professionals and regulators. Her practice includes those most serious cases where death is alleged to have resulted from a professional’s misconduct, in such cases she is also able to act at inquest and in any subsequent criminal proceedings that may arise. She frequently acts in cases where practitioners face suspension or erasure from their register. Her practice in the field of criminal law also provides her with expertise in respect of fraud and conviction cases.
Eleanor is skilled at mastering the detail of professional standards and guidance across the array of disciplines and is highly experienced in calling and challenging expert evidence. In the medical field, she has acted in cases concerning a wide range of specialisms including oncology, geriatrics, paediatrics, emergency medicine, anaethesia, complex surgical procedures and in the territory of “never” events. Her complementary practice in safety law has required detailed understanding of professional standards within the construction, aviation, manufacturing, hospitality, residential, transport, recycling, retail, tech and nuclear industries.
Eleanor regularly appears before a range of tribunals including proceedings brought by the General Medical Council, General Dental Council, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, General Optical Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council, PLDPs and the First Tier Tribunal. More diverse regulatory experience includes appearances before the Security Industry Association licensing appeals panel, the UK Council for Psychotherapy. She also appears before the Traffic Commissioner in relation to Vehicle Operator licences.
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Eleanor has wide experience of a range of fraud, money laundering and other dishonesty matters, including cash forfeiture and confiscation proceedings.
She acted for Deutsche Bank trader K, a trader acquitted of conspiring to rig the Euro Interbank Offer Rate (EURIBOR) between 2005-2009 at the conclusion of a three month trial, prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office. Other high profile cases include “Imperial Consolidated”, an alleged $250 million offshore Ponzi fraud in which the defendant was acquitted after two six month trials, and acting for a Liberal Democrat donor, who was alleged to have defrauded the former Manchester United Chairman of over $12.5 million. Previous instructions include from the Serious Fraud Office to review FBI/Grand Jury material where the UK trial was preceded by convictions in the US Federal Court.
Eleanor has experience of insolvency law in both criminal and civil contexts, including acting for trustees in bankruptcy and third parties attempting to challenge the making of confiscation orders. In addition to her trial work in this area, Eleanor was a consultant editor of the Lloyds Law Reports on Financial Crime between 2012-2018.