Partner says running firm about more than simply using the law

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MARGARET TAYLOR

“You see all too often the impact and devastation that workplace fatalities have on people’s lives,” Mr McGuire said.

“If a family is unfortunate enough to suffer the loss of a loved one we will fight tooth and nail to get them what they’re entitled to but actually we felt it would be much better if the law was changed to deter those things from happening in the first place.

“Seeing families affected in that way I recognised that a real change was needed, that the law didn’t contain enough deterrents in terms of what happens to wrongdoers on the corporate side.

“I spent a lot of time working with campaign groups like Families Against Corporate Killers, the STUC and Amicus [now Unite] and that ultimately led to the then justice minister Cathy Jamieson setting up an expert panel to look at this.

“Ultimately that did lead to change, albeit via Westminster, with the Scottish Government eventually taking the decision to allow the UK to enact a piece of legislation to cover the entire country.”

Although Mr McGuire said Thompsons “continues to campaign” because it feels the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act does not go far enough, he added that the case exemplifies what he feels his role as a solicitor should be.

“When you can make a difference in one person’s life it’s wonderful but if its hundreds that’s when you can go to bed a pretty content person,” he said.

It is in this respect that Thompsons in Scotland is carrying on the work of trade union champion Harry Thompson, who originally established the firm in England in the early 1920s.

In addition to fighting for better compensation for people injured at work, Thompsons Scotland has played a leading role for victims of numerous high-profile medical scandals, representing women affected by vaginal mesh and PIP breast implants as well as men and women who were maimed after receiving metal-onmetal hip replacements.

While the firm takes on these cases and others like them with the aim of winning compensation for the victims, Mr McGuire said a common theme for the people involved is more to have their suffering recognised than to receive huge sums of cash.

“A payout is not the principal purpose the main drivers are that they want answers,” he explained.

“They want it laid bare for everyone to see so their wrongdoer can have the light of public scrutiny shone on them. The reality – and this has struck me