Profile
Adam Fullwood’s main areas of practice are public and administrative law (community care/adult social services, care homes, charging, safeguarding, social housing, inquests, inquiries, prison, care standards, education, human rights law, mental capacity and mental health, Court of Protection and immigration), regulatory and disciplinary, public procurement and local government. He has particular experience in representing care home owners and care providers. He is a member of the Attorney General’s regional ‘A’ panel, a Football Association Safeguarding Panel Member and an accredited mediator (CEDR). Adam sits as an assistant coroner.
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Peter Campbell
Director of Clerking
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Peter Campbell
Director of Clerking
Areas Of Expertise
Adam has a wide ranging public law practice encompassing adult social care, recovery of care home & special school fees, inherent jurisdiction, healthcare, local government, pharmaceutical and safeguarding matters.
Adam Fullwood is a senior junior at 39 Essex Chambers specialising in public law, community care and health and social care matters, with particular experience representing care home owners and care providers, including specialist residential providers supporting people with learning disabilities and complex needs. His practice spans community care and adult social services, care home charging and funding, recovery of care home & special school fees, care standards, safeguarding, education and regulatory matters arising in the health and social care sectors.
Adam is well placed to assist with the recovery of outstanding fees under a contract with a residential specialist school. His day-to-day work concerns the funding and commissioning arrangements that underpin specialist placements — he acted, for example, in R (Lancashire CC) v Secretary of State for Health [2021] EWHC 268, a dispute over responsibility for funding a specialist brain-injury placement — and he regularly advises providers on their contractual and charging arrangements with commissioners and private payers.
He is equally well equipped to deal with the anticipated counterclaim alleging breach of contractual obligations and duties of care. Adam has longstanding expertise in the standards of care owed by specialist residential settings to young people with learning disabilities and complex needs, drawing on his safeguarding, care standards and regulatory practice, his Court of Protection work involving people with learning disabilities, and his role as a Football Association Safeguarding Panel member and assistant coroner. As a CEDR-accredited mediator, he is also experienced in resolving disputes outside the courtroom and is comfortable working within arbitral and other ADR frameworks.
Cases of Note
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v GWS [2025] EWCOP 23 (T3) per Theis J: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Best interests; Capacity; Consent to treatment; Drug users; Ketamine; Medical treatment; Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust v AX [2025] EWCOP 21 (T3) per Khalique KC: Best interests; Caesarean sections; Mental capacity; Pregnancy
- University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v PK [2025] EWCOP 17 (T3) per Mckendrick J: Best interests; Death; Life-sustaining treatment; Withdrawal
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust v PP [2025] EWHC 783 (Fam) per McKendrick J: Blood tests; Children’s welfare; Consent to treatment; Infections; Jurisdiction; Pregnancy; Right to respect for private and family life; Unborn children
- Guys & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust v MB [2025] EWHC 360 (Fam) per Theis J: Babies; Best interests; Brain damage; Life-sustaining treatment; Medical treatment; Withdrawal
- A Local Authority v The Mother [2024] EWHC 3595 (Fam) per Arbuthnot J: Attempts; Best interests assessments; Children; Death; Life-sustaining treatment; Withdrawal; Murder; Parental contact
- Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust v CC [2024] EWCOP 65 (T3) per Hayden J: Consent to treatment; Eating disorders; Medical treatment; Mental capacity
- NHS Liverpool CCG v X [2022] EWCOP 17 – Dispute over whether to give an incapacitated person who had epilepsy and other health conditions the vaccine against Covid-19 where that person had already contracted the virus.
- PH v A Clinical Commissioning Group [2022] EWCOP 12 – A claim to dismiss an application in the Court of Protection for orders in relation to a young person detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Adam regularly appears for interested parties in inquests with particular experience involving deaths in healthcare settings. Adam is currently acting for NHS Essex Partnership University Trust in the Lampard Inquiry. he also acted for NHS England in the Thirlwall Inquiry and the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) in the public inquiry into the Manchester Arena terrorist attack chaired by Sir John Saunders.
Adam accepts instructions across a wide range of disciplines for both practitioners and regulators. He has particular experience and interest in regulatory matters arising in the health and social care sectors.
Adam specialises in medical treatment and welfare cases in the Court of Protection and is regularly instructed by the NHS Trusts and other health bodies local authorities, the Official Solicitor as well as by private individuals. He advises on urgent and other medical treatment cases in respect of adults and children, in the Court of Protection, Family Division, and under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court. Adam has particular experience and interest in legally complex welfare cases, such as hybrid welfare and property and affairs cases, and cases involving a cross border issue, mental health or community care law, and potential Human Rights Act or judicial review claims.
Cases of Note
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v GWS [2025] EWCOP 23 (T3) per Theis J: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Best interests; Capacity; Consent to treatment; Drug users; Ketamine; Medical treatment; Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust v AX [2025] EWCOP 21 (T3) per Khalique KC: Best interests; Caesarean sections; Mental capacity; Pregnancy
- University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v PK [2025] EWCOP 17 (T3) per Mckendrick J: Best interests; Death; Life-sustaining treatment; Withdrawal
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust v PP [2025] EWHC 783 (Fam) per McKendrick J: Blood tests; Children’s welfare; Consent to treatment; Infections; Jurisdiction; Pregnancy; Right to respect for private and family life; Unborn children
- Guys & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust v MB [2025] EWHC 360 (Fam) per Theis J: Babies; Best interests; Brain damage; Life-sustaining treatment; Medical treatment; Withdrawal
- A Local Authority v The Mother [2024] EWHC 3595 (Fam) per Arbuthnot J: Attempts; Best interests assessments; Children; Death; Life-sustaining treatment; Withdrawal; Murder; Parental contact
- Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust v CC [2024] EWCOP 65 (T3) per Hayden J: Consent to treatment; Eating disorders; Medical treatment; Mental capacity
- East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust v CD [2024] EWCOP 55 – treatment for continued haemodialysis
- A Local Authority v P [2024] EWHC 1882 – the reach of the inherent jurisdiction to deprive a vulnerable young adult of her liberty when at risk of undue influence from a coercive and controlling parent
- Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust v VA [2023] EWCOP 39 – withdrawal of life sustaining treatment
- Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust v AH [2023] EWCOP 1 – treatment, including restraint, for patient with type 1 diabetes
- TN v NHS ICB [2022] EWCOP 53 – whether to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to a patient with learning disabilities where parent strongly objects
