Alison Hewitt

Practice Areas

Alison Hewitt has specialised in inquests for nearly 20 years and is very experienced in all aspects of coronial law and procedure. She is a Specialist Editor of Jervis on Coroners.

Alison has acted as "Counsel to the Inquest" in numerous long and complex cases including the high-profile and sensitive inquests into the deaths of Ian Tomlinson, Poppi Worthington and Oskar Nash. She also represents a wide range of clients at inquests, including Police Constabularies, private prisons, NHS Trusts and individual clinicians, and care homes; most of her work involves state agencies, with a focus on deaths in custody or Mental Health Units, or with a background of complex clinical care, and child deaths.

Alison has appeared in many leading Judicial Review claims concerning coronial law, such as the recent R (Maughan) v HMC for Oxfordshire (in the Supreme Court) and R (Morahan) v HMC for West London.

In her police law practice Alison acts for Chief Constables in relation to civil claims, judicial review, public inquiries (including the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) and professional standards/misconduct matters.

Alison was called to the Bar in 1984; she is HM Senior Coroner for the City of London (a part-time role) since 2016. She also acts as a Legal Adviser to the General Dental Council.

She is a member of The Coroners' Society of England and Wales; PIBA.

Please visit the 5 Essex Chambers website for Alison’s profile, which sets out full details of her practice including relevant work of note.