PETER GARSDEN

Biog

Having qualified as a solicitor in 1981 Peter has spent the last eighteen years of his professional life supporting the victims of child abuse as a specialist child abuse compensation solicitor. He was the senior partner at Abney Garsden solicitors prior to its merger with Simpson Millar LLP, where he is now a partner and Head of the Child Abuse Department, which he set up in 1994. The department is now one of the largest in the country dedicated to child abuse and, as a lead solicitor, Peter has been involved with over 25 different group actions for compensation, including the largest award achieved in the area of Child Abuse Groups of £2.3million on behalf of 165 claimants who were abused at homes managed by Manchester City Council. Peter is President of ACAL (Association of Child Abuse Lawyers), a claimant based organisation of compensation abuse lawyers, which he helped to set up in 1997, that is dedicated to raising the standards of advice through training and support. He also does a lot of pro bono work assisting charities and victims’ groups, and has written on the subject of child abuse litigation in legal journals and the national press.