Daniel Sokol
Daniel is ranked as a “Leading Junior” in the Legal 500 (2024), where he is described as “extraordinarily bright and a highly effective litigator. He has sound judgement and good commercial awareness. He is a singularly impressive lawyer who punches well above his level of call.”
He has a specialist interest in personal injury, clinical negligence, and education law. He has experience of high value catastrophic PI and clinical negligence cases, including fatal accidents, tetraplegia, amputations and severe somatoform disorders. He has represented families at inquests involving deaths in hospital.
A former university lecturer with a PhD in medical ethics, he is comfortable on his feet and in writing. In November 2011, as a pupil, Daniel was awarded the Inner Temple Advocacy Prize and he has since been involved in advocacy training for Bar students.
He undertakes a wide range of court work, acting for both Claimants and Defendants.
Daniel is the Lead Adviser for Alpha Academic Appeals, assisting university students who have been accused of misconduct, from cheating to sexual assault, who are appealing academic results, or who are undergoing fitness to practise procedures.
Daniel has been a keynote speaker in international medical conferences, an after-dinner speaker, written four books on ethics and law and over 400 articles, both in peer-reviewed academic journals and in newspapers such as the Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Independent, and the New York Times.
He is a columnist for the British Medical Journal on ethico-legal issues, for which he was awarded ‘Best Column’ by the Medical Journalists’ Association in 2015. He appears regularly on the BBC as an expert in medical law and ethics.
In 2020, Daniel was appointed Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Research Ethics Committee. He was formerly a member of several committees, including those for the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice, and the Royal College of Surgeons.
He is trained to accept direct instructions from the public under the Bar’s public access scheme and has authority to conduct litigation. He is an accredited mediator.
He speaks French fluently, has conversational Spanish, and enjoys squash and tennis. He is a close-up magician and, in 2014, was admitted as a Member of the Magic Circle.
Clinical Negligence
As a former university lecturer in medical ethics and law based in a hospital, Daniel has in-depth knowledge of the clinical environment and medical terminology. He has acted for Claimants in claims against a vast array of medical professionals, from surgeons to physiotherapists. He has experience of all aspects of clinical negligence litigation, from providing preliminary advice to appearing at trial.
Following a well-received talk at the annual AvMA conference, Daniel is particularly sought after in ‘failure to consent’ cases.
Married to a neurosurgeon, he thrives in cases involving severe spinal and brain injuries.
Download sectionPersonal Injury
Daniel has a strong and varied Personal Injury practice, acting in high value cases involving catastrophic injuries in adults and children. He has been led in several cases by Frank Burton KC, Lizanne Gumbel KC, Colin McCaul KC, Paul Russell KC, Gerard Martin KC, and Simon Readhead KC.
Download sectionEducation Law
Daniel represents university students in misconduct and academic appeals, fitness to practise proceedings, and actions against higher education institutions. He has particular expertise in cases involving allegations of cheating and academic misconduct.
He is regularly instructed by the Embassy of Qatar to assist Qatari nationals in educational difficulty.
He also runs a popular training course for university staff involved in academic and misconduct appeals.
Download sectionMediation
Daniel obtained his accreditation as a mediator in 2019 by the Bar Council-approved Society of Mediators. He can mediate a wide range of disputes, from contractual disagreements to PI/clinical negligence cases.
Download sectionQualifications & Awards
PhD Medical Ethics – Imperial College London (2006)
MSc Medical Ethics, Distinction – Imperial College London (2003)
MSc Social and Economic History – Green College, Oxford (2002)
BA (Hons) in Modern Languages, First – St Edmund Hall, Oxford (2001)
Bar Professional Training Course, Outstanding – City University, London (2011)
Graduate Diploma in Law, Distinction – BPP London (2010), with top mark in the country for Constitutional and Administrative Law
Best Column, Medical Journalists’ Association (2015)
Inner Temple Advocacy Prize (2011)
Everard Ver Heyden Foundation Prize for Outstanding Result on the BPTC (2011)
Elfreda Edwards Scholarship, Inner Temple (2010)
Appointments & Memberships
Chair, Metropolitan Police Research Ethics Committee
APIL
Member of the Magic Circle
Publications
Daniel has over 400 publications on medical ethics and law. These are available on his website: www.medicalethicist.net
He has published 4 books, most recently ‘Tough Choices: Stories from the Front Line of Medical Ethics’, which has been translated in Russian.
Cases
Daniel has appeared in or assisted in many cases of particular interest, including:
Bitterly disputed and highly publicised case of Joy v Joy, in which the husband’s (“H”) application to reduce drastically the £120,000 a year he was ordered to pay his ex-wife (represented by Daniel) in spousal maintenance was dismissed and the capital claim adjourned for several years.
John Taheny v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Others (2020) (on the non-disclosure of a diagnosis of Klinefelter’s syndrome for over 50 years)
Gary Palmer v Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (2016) (on whether a maxillofacial surgeon obtained valid consent for an operation in a patient enrolled on a randomised controlled trial)
R (Saliesh Patel) v GMC (on the lawfulness of the GMC’s refusal to accept a doctor’s primary medical qualification as an acceptable overseas qualification despite previous assurances)
