Alex Ruck Keene QC (Hon) is a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers. He has been recommended as a leading expert in the field of mental capacity law for several years, appearing in cases involving the Mental Capacity Act 2005 at all levels up to and including the Supreme Court. He also writes extensively about mental capacity law and policy. He has contributed to works including The International Protection of Adults (2015, Oxford University Press), Jordans’ annual Court of Protection Practice and the fifth edition of Assessment of Mental Capacity (Law Society/BMA 2022 (forthcoming)). He is an Honorary Research Lecturer at the University of Manchester and a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at King’s College London. He has sat on both the ad hoc committees convened to review the Court of Protection Rules 2007, is a member of the Law Society’s Mental Health and Disability Committees of both England and Wales, and the creator of the website www.mentalcapacitylawandpolicy.org.uk.
Kate Edwards is a Senior Associate Solicitor and professional property and affairs deputy with the Court of Protection team at Simpson Millar. She is a member of STEP (Society of Trusts & Estates Practitioners) and the founder of the Court of Protection Practitioners Association (CoPPA).
Nicola Mackintosh QC (Hon) is the sole principal of the Mackintosh Law, a specialist law firm providing expert legal advice and representation to disabled clients in the areas of mental capacity and community care. Nicola is co-chair of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, a member of the Law Society Council and the Law Society mental health and disability committee. She is on the editorial advisory board of Community Care Law Reports.
Sophy Miles is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and a fee-paid judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health). She qualified as a solicitor in 1989 and was a founding partner at Miles and Partners LLP where she led the mental health and capacity team for 16 years. Sophy practices in all aspects of mental health and disability law, with a focus on cases in the Court of Protection and the inherent jurisdiction, inquests and inquiries. She is an accredited mediator (Regent’s University London).
Professor Anselm Eldergill was a co-author on editions 1-3 and his chapters remain in the text. Anselm is a district judge in the Court of Protection and a visiting professor at University College, London. Before becoming a judge he was a practising legal aid solicitor specialising in mental health law for over 25 years, and then led the mental health team at Eversheds. He was President of the Mental Health Lawyers Association and of the Institute of Mental Health Act Practitioners, and ranked 1 in Chambers Directory. He is an Alexander Maxwell Scholar and the author of Mental Health Review Tribunals: Law and Procedure (Sweet & Maxwell 1997) and articles for journals such as the Princeton University Law Journal, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and The Guardian. He was chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission’s Law and Ethics Committee.
Court of Protection Handbook 