Charlotte Whitaker Partner

Charlotte is a partner in the dispute resolution team. She is supported by our extensive dispute resolution practice which includes civil litigators with a regulatory specialism as well as experienced criminal practitioners making the team a “one-stop shop” for clients’ civil and criminal investigations.

Charlotte advises on large scale health and safety investigations, inquests and public inquiries. She has particular expertise in advising clients at the incident response phase to multi-fatality health and safety incidents and has extensive experience in acting for clients in sensitive and high-profile inquests. Charlotte advises across a range of sectors with a particular specialism in transport and energy.

Charlotte has experience in leading investigations as part of the Solicitor to the Inquiry team as well as advising Core Participants. She is also a qualified Legal Project Manager.

Charlotte is recognised as a ‘Next Generation Partner’ for Health and Safety in both the London and South West Editions of Legal 500 and is “Up and Coming” in Chambers & Partners for Public Inquiries. Charlotte was also recognised as one of The Lawyers “Hot 100” for excellence and relevance in 2024.

• Module Lead Solicitor as part of the Solicitor to the Inquiry team on the UK-Covid 19 Public Inquiry.
• Advising an organisation on its response to a high-profile non-statutory Public Inquiry.
• Advising on a multi-fatality incident in the transport sector. Charlotte played a key role in the incident response phase (including advising on provision of documents and contractual liabilities in relation to safety obligations) and provided on-going advice in relation to the criminal and regulatory investigations. Charlotte led on the 10 week ‘super-inquest’ and the subsequent prosecution in Central London Criminal Court.
• Advising a train operating company in relation to an ORR prosecution into a death at work, including representing the company at the inquest and advising on the appeal of an Improvement Notice.
• Advising a client in the energy sector on a fatality at its operational site. Charlotte advised on the Improvement Notice and response to the interview under caution. Charlotte also advised on the approach to the inquest.
• Providing advice to a train operating company in relation to possible breaches of health and safety legislation following a death of a passenger. Also advised on approach to inquest and response to the interview under caution.
• Advising a client in the leisure sector on a prosecution brought by a local authority following a death of a member of the public.
• Providing incident response and on-going advice to a Corporate Manslaughter investigation to an energy sector client following a multi-fatality incident.
• Advising a client in the transport sector on incident response following a high-profile incident. Charlotte also led on the regulatory and criminal investigation responses.