Patrick Barbour

Having obtained a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, Patrick spent two years designing sub-sea wellhead equipment for the North Sea oil industry. He then returned to Leeds University to carry out research into the wear of polymers used in artificial hip joints. Having gained a PhD, he continued his research and lectured Mechanical Engineering at Leeds University. Patrick joined Dr J H Burgoyne and Partners LLP in 2000 to investigate incidents involving personal injury and mechanical failure for insurers and solicitors. During this time the findings of his investigations were used in numerous court cases, both civil and criminal, and he attended arbitrations and mediations to present expert evidence. In 2008 Patrick joined Hawkins in our Bristol office where he continues to use his expertise to investigate incidents of personal injury and mechanical failure. Patrick’s cases have involved the safety of systems of work and the failure of engineering components in commercial and domestic installations. These cases can require the analysis of stress and failure modes of a variety of materials, loads generated by static and moving bodies, thermodynamics and fluid flow as well as the safety of systems of work and the safety of interlocking systems intended to prevent […]

Rob Baldock

Rob graduated from Cambridge University in 2003 with first-class B.A. and MEng degrees focused on structural and mechanical engineering. In collaboration with Arup, he completed his PhD in 2007, investigating the application of structural optimisation to building design. Rob then worked in Arup’s London Buildings Group for more than 6 years on diverse local and international projects in various sectors. These included long-span and transfer structures, deep basements, and tensile fabric roofs. Rob also has practical site experience, working on secondment to the contractor at Canary Wharf Crossrail Station and as resident engineer on a school construction in the Indian Himalayas. Rob is very experienced in structural glass design, having spent over 6 years at Eckersley O’Callaghan, where he was involved with iconic and pioneering projects associated with façade systems. He has managed the design of glazing systems on a number of international flagship Apple stores, including the hemispherical Marina Bay Sands store in Singapore, and has lead collaborations with major glazing contractors. He was also the lead engineer for a pair of complex pedestrian bridge structures, linking office buildings over a public highway. Rob joined Hawkins’ Built Environment Team in early 2022 with 14 years of building design experience working as […]

Richard Baker

Richard joined Hawkins in 2017 as a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. He graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2009 with a First Class Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering. Richard has previously occupied the roles of Engineer, Senior Engineer and Principal Engineer. He now specialises in the forensic investigation of road traffic accidents/collisions, vehicle and mechanical failures, and image analysis typically of video recordings from CCTV systems and ‘dash-cams’. Richard has extensive experience in engineering design and analysis. As well as taking on more traditional mechanical engineering cases, such as those involving failures of mechanical joints and fasteners, Richard uses his experience in engineering data analysis and interrogation in cases involving video analysis. Richard applies scientific analysis methods to video recordings to facilitate interpretation of events in the context of space (position), time, speed, and the fundamental scientific and engineering principles that bound the problem. This work includes video clarification and enhancement, relating to single and multiple vehicle accidents, and collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists. This area of Richard’s work often strongly overlaps with his expertise in collision investigation and Richard is regularly instructed to deal with both Video Analysis Expert and Collision Reconstruction Expert aspects of a case. Richard has […]

Nick Ashby

Following graduation Nick began his engineering career with the Central Electricity Generating Board as a graduate apprentice, which involved a two year technical training programme covering all aspects of the UK Electricity Supply Industry. Upon completion of his formal training Nick was appointed to a position within the Engineering Department of a 2000MW coal fired power station in Kent. For the next ten years Nick undertook a variety of technical operations and engineering roles within coal and gas power stations. During this time Nick was fully authorised under Powergen’s Electromechanical Safety Rules as well as being authorised under the National Grid Safety Rules. Nick discharged a number of shift management positions where he was responsible for the operation of all types of electrical and mechanical equipment associated with the generation and transmission of electricity. In 1998 Nick assumed a position with Powergen International in Hungary, as part of the senior management team of a new build Combined Heat and Power (CHP) power station. Nick had specific responsibility for the safety and technical training of the Hungarian operations staff, together with providing the operational liaison during the commissioning process. In 2000 Nick returned to the UK as Operations Manager at Seabank […]

Ben Adams

Ben is a power plant electrical engineer and internationally recognised generator expert.  Since joining Hawkins in 2018, Ben has specialised in major and complex electrical plant insurance losses with assignments in over 40 countries. As well as working on failures for the insurance industry, Ben has acted as an expert witness in an international arbitration and regularly provides consultancy on generator issues to power plants. Key areas of specialism: Generators (turbo, hydro and wind), and their auxiliary systems; Synchronous compensators / Rotating stabilisers / Large motors; Transformers (including bushings and on line tap changers); Wind turbine electrical systems; Solar PV plants; Switchgear and busbar systems; Power plant operation and maintenance (thermal and renewable); Power plant risk engineering; Quantum support on generator claims; Electrical equipment assessment following escapes of water; Generator fire investigation Prior to joining Hawkins, Ben gained more than 15 years’ experience working in the power industry at Drax power station, followed by RWE and International Power (latterly GDF Suez and ENGIE).  As part of these roles, he provided technical support to large fleets of power plants in the areas of high voltage equipment and general power plant risk engineering, both internally and in the case of RWE, also […]

Graeme Drysdale

Graeme joined the Glasgow Claims Department of Commercial Union in 1982 and left to join Thomas Howell Selfe as a trainee loss adjuster in 1986. Over the ensuing 16 years Graeme worked variously for Cunningham Hart, Willis Corroon, THG, Davies, Crawford & Co and GAB Robins, including a period of self-employment trading as Whittle Drysdale & Co. In 2002 he joined AXA Corporate Claims, Ipswich handling Major Loss First Party & Casualty losses. He also enjoyed a short secondment increasing his knowledge of EL/PL and Motor Injury claims. Graeme was attracted by the lure of the bright lights and in 2010 left to join Zurich Global Corporate in London as a Senior Adjuster, handling some of the highest value property damage claims in the global market on a lead basis. Graeme found this the most challenging and technically interesting job in his career so far. Graeme joined Hawkins in May 2013 as Business Development Manager and brings his extensive contacts and experience of the workings of the London, UK and International Insurance Markets. He is based in Cambridge and has desks in our Glasgow and London offices. Graeme travels extensively meeting existing and potential customers. He attained the ACII Diploma […]

Ian Major

Ian started his career working for Aspen Burrow Crocker on a variety of civil engineering projects. He was involved in the design of numerous highway and infrastructure schemes, waste transfer stations and the Thameslink rail project. He has also spent time supervising construction work on site including a year working at wastewater treatment plants. In 1999, Ian joined Hyder Consulting where he spent 11 years working predominantly on the design and project management of major infrastructure projects including the N5 in Ireland, the A2 widening in Kent and the A421 improvements in Bedfordshire. Ian joined Hawkins in 2010, specialising in the investigation of property damage and personal injuries involving civil engineering and building incidents. He is also an experienced fire investigator, having investigated over 200 fires including major and complex losses in domestic, commercial and industrial premises. In his specialist field of engineering, Ian has determined the causes of a wide range of losses from small domestic claims of water ingress through to catastrophic building collapses. Other examples of incidents that Ian has investigated include wall failures, subsidence, flooding and problems associated with ground-borne vibration. Much of this work has involved advising on matters in relation to the requirements of […]

Paul Lemon

Paul Lemon is a personal injury expert with Hawkins, specialising in the area of slips and trips.

Rosalind Lambert-Porter

Rosalind is an acoustics consultant with degrees in both Audiology and Acoustics. With consulting experience in the United Kingdom, Africa and Australia, she has had a varied career in different sectors from vibration monitoring in mining and creation of hearing conservation programmes through to environmental noise impact and school acoustics design. Her particular area of interest, given her background in both hearing science and noise control, is in acoustics in the workplace with a focus on the impact of noise on wellbeing. Ros held the post of Regional Manager in our Cambridge Office before becoming Managing Director of Hawkins Acoustics Consultancy. She is currently located at our London Office.

Gareth Dobinson

Gareth started his career in engineering with an industrial placement during his third year at Loughborough University. The twelve months were spent working for Xerox as a Systems Engineer where he undertook a wide range of engineering work as well as developing a system to monitor paper control timings for a paper transport module. As part of his placement he spent five months working in Venray, Netherlands, integrating new products into the manufacturing line. On completion of his placement he received a bursary from Xerox for the final two years of his degree. His final year project was sponsored by Xerox and investigated “The environmental effects on glass reinforced plastic”. After completing his degree Gareth joined Xerox on their Graduate Engineering programme based in Welwyn Garden City. During his five years at Xerox, Gareth obtained a wealth of experiences in both the mechanical and software aspects of engineering. He started working in the Mechanical group where he was the lead engineer on a paper handling module. This was followed up by two long term assignments to Senai, Malaysia and Wilsonville, USA. During his third year at Xerox Gareth undertook a conversion course in Software Engineering. The skills learnt on this […]