She is widely recognised as a leading practitioner in healthcare law. She leads a team of healthcare solicitors who are expert in the defence of medical negligence claims, product liability and repercussive claims and in representing doctors and allied healthcare professionals before their regulatory bodies.
Mary is a partner and Head of the Healthcare team at Hayes solicitors, the largest dedicated healthcare litigation team in the country.
She is a specialist in the defence of medical negligence and professional indemnity claims, with more than 20 years’ experience. She is a recognised expert in high value catastrophic injury claims including birth injury claims. . Her work on claims arising from delayed diagnosis of cancer includes cases which have been fast tracked for hearing and case managed by the High Court. Mary has extensive experience in civil litigation, acting for insurance companies, indemnifiers and plaintiffs.
Mary is an experienced advocate and a skilled negotiator. She has represented clinicians in a public Inquiry and frequently at Inquests without instructing counsel. She also frequently negotiates settlement of claims and discontinuances without counsel.
Mary has extensive experience of providing both day to day and emergency medico-legal advice to clinicians and hospitals and she provides healthcare related legal advice to charities and nursing homes. She is a CEDR accredited mediator and resolves many sensitive claims through mediation.
For many years, Mary has advised public and private hospitals, medical professionals and their indemnifiers in a wide range of contentious and non-contentious medico-legal matters. These include issues relating to consent, policies, guidelines and protocols, patient complaints, Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation, retention of records and claims management.
With over 20 years’ experience in private practice and having worked for 6 years managing clinical negligence claims in the State Claims Agency (Clinical Indemnity Scheme), Mary has unique insight into all aspects of medical negligence litigation and an in-depth understanding of clients’ needs.
Complex claims – acting in the defence of birth injury and catastrophic injury claims.
Advocacy – acting as the sole advocate for a leading children’s hospital in a Tribunal of Inquiry and representing clinicians at coroners inquests
High Court applications – making applications to the High Court for orders relating to the urgent medical treatment of children.
Mediation – using skills as a CEDR-accredited mediator in the mediation of disputes related to healthcare and non-healthcare issues.
Mary has had articles published on medical negligence issues in the Law Society Gazette and The Parchment, the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association journal.
She has lectured on medico-legal issues – such as informed consent, mediation and claims management – to clinicians and medical students in public and voluntary hospitals, and to solicitors in the Law Society of Ireland. She has presented insights on medical negligence claims at medico-legal seminars.
Mary was the sole defendant solicitor invited by the Law Society of Ireland to speak at its Masterclass in Medical Negligence. She frequently participates as the sole defendant solicitor on an expert panel at the Kings Inns Diploma in Medical Law.
Mary gives healthcare-related advice to charities and has advised hospital boards on medico-legal issues.