Nicola Mackintosh KC (Hon) – Founder and Director

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Nicola Mackintosh KC (Hon) is the Sole Director of Mackintosh Law, having founded the firm in 2011 and having run a legal practice since 1999.  Nicola is the firm’s Compliance Officer for Legal Practice.

 

Nicola brought the landmark ‘Coughlan’ case regarding entitlement to NHS funded continuing health care, as well as many other leading test cases for mentally ill and disabled people and their rights to community care and health services. 

 

Nicola is Co-Chair of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group and a longstanding member of the Law Society’s Mental Health and Disability Committee. She has also been a member of the Law Society Council. She is an accredited member of the Law Society’s Mental Capacity (Welfare) Accreditation scheme.  She is a member of the ad hoc Court of Protection Rules Committee and the Court of Protection ‘Hive’ group.

 

She campaigns actively for access to justice issues, particularly for people with disabilities and those unable to represent themselves. She has co-authored the Manifesto for Legal Aid launched at the House of Lords and is profoundly committed to the right to justice for all. 

 

In 2014 Nicola was appointed by the then Lord Chancellor as Honorary QC (now KC), recognising her extraordinary contribution to the law and its development outside usual legal practice in the Courts.  She is also an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple Inn.

 

Nicola is regularly instructed by the Official Solicitor in the Court of Protection and has been involved in many of the test cases in the specialist and niche field of mental capacity, serving mentally ill and disabled people and championing their rights to community care services.  

 

Nicola also took the leading case on facilitating the participation of vulnerable people in Court of Protection proceedings.  Her experience and recommendations led to formal guidance being issued by the then President of the Court, Mr Justice Charles to ensure that P’s voice is heard and is always at the centre of the process. As the Guardian has reported, for Nicola, the client is the centre of everything she does.