Professional Experience

Susan has a long and successful career representing countless clients, both victims and families of victims, whose lives have been changed because of medical negligence.

She represents clients on a variety of highly complex matters such as her landmark Hep C cases, medical misdiagnosis claims, surgery compensation claims and a range of other medical negligent cases.

Susan is a highly accomplished solicitor and manages her cases with integrity and passion and is always solution focused. Susan has been instrumental in establishing the firm’s reputation as one of the leading litigation firms in Ireland. Key to her success are the strong and trusting solicitor-client relationships she builds with her clients. Susan applies her in-depth knowledge and specialised expertise to each matter and has obtained numerous successful judgments and settlements, both pre-trial and during trial, for her clients.

Susan started the firm’s civil litigation department in 1981 with a commitment to represent clients with a dedicated and expert work ethic. Medical Negligence cases have always been central to the departments legal work.

Susan acted for Plaintiffs in most of the substantial Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal claims which have been brought on appeal before the High Court and the Supreme Court over the past 25 years. She was the lead lawyer representing the Positive Action lobby group and victims who contracted Hepatitis C as a result of the viral contamination of blood products and the blood supply in Ireland. Over one thousand members of the public were infected.

She was directly involved in the drafting of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act 1997 and the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal (Amendment) Acts 2002 and 2006 and led the negotiations with the Department of Health to formulate health care and insurance packages which have been implemented for the benefit of individuals who had contracted Hepatitis C.

Susan represented Bridget McCole, in her civil claim against the State in which the discovery obtained was crucial in establishing that the Hepatitis C outbreak had been caused by the use of contaminated blood from a single donor that had been used in breach of the Blood Transfusion Service Board’s (BTSB) own donor selection standards and that the BTSB had subsequently ignored reports of Hepatitis C infections in patients exposed to such contaminated blood over many years.

Susan’s committed representation of her clients and her work on Hep C cases from the mid-1990s to this date are regarded as ground-breaking legal work in the State’s history and at the time labelled “the finest traditions of the legal profession”. (Ken Murphy Director of the Law Society March 1998)

Susan continues to represent victims and their families in all Hep C claims as well as across a range of other medical negligence cases.

Susan has also represented the Irish Haemophiliacs in successful litigation in both Ireland and the United States of America arising from the infection of their members with the HIV virus through the use of Factor 8 and 9 products.