LEGAL EXPERT WITNESS

Experience and capabilities

Rowan House has provided legal expert witness for process engineering cases since 1998. The three legal expert witnesses are Dr John Cox, Dr Malcolm Leach and Mr Clive de Salis.

Dr J Cox PhD., DIC., BSc., MSc., CEng., FIChemE

Consulting Chemical Engineer

Dr Cox has practised privately for over 30 years. He is a Registered Safety Professional with the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), on the Editorial Board of the IChemE Environmental Protection bulletin., and a Member of the Association of Consulting Engineers. He is a Member of the FIDIC Panel of International Arbitrators. Dr Cox began his expert witness work at the Public Inquiry into the Flixborough disaster that happened on 1st June 1974.

Dr Cox has been associated with Rowan House since 1993 and has provided expert support to a number of projects. He has given written expert opinion on safety and environmental matters on more than 30 occasions over the past decade and oral evidence on 8 occasions.

Malcolm Leach Ph.D., B.Sc. (Chem Eng), C.Eng., F.I.Chem.E., C.Dip.A.F.

Consulting Chemical Engineer

Malcolm Leach obtained his first degree in Chemical Engineering at Leeds University followed by a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering. Malcolm has also obtained a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE).

He was from 1971-2004 employed by a Multinational Petrochemical Company, a Process Plant Manufacturer, an Engineering Contractor and as a University Lecturer - before joining Rowan House Ltd in 2003, specialising in part in safety, fired heaters and process design issues. His work at both the Engineering Contractor and as a Process Engineer included water treatment and waste water treatment plants.

Malcolm has undertaken production capacity and economic evaluation studies on five occasions, one of which was a sludge drying plant. He has undertaken accident investigations for loss adjustors which included an investigation into a dust explosion on a sewage sludge drying processes.

Malcolm has acted as expert witness and given written expert opinion on four occasions, two of which were on sludge drying cases. All of which settled before judgement was made and one case continues at present.

Clive de Salis MA(ATS), BSc., CEng., MIChemE

Consulting Chemical Engineer

Clive de Salis is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (MIChemE) and a registered safety professional with the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He is also both a member of SIESO, the Society of Industrial Emergency Services Officers for those involved in the prevention of and planning for the response to accidents in the industrial workplace, and a Member of CIWEM, the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. I am the Chair of the 61508 Association for safety instrumentation.

Mr de Salis is a director of Rowan House and has specialist expertise in process control and process design. He gained considerable IEC61508 and IEC61511 experience for safety critical instrumentation and for the process plant assessment under the standard. Clive is the chair of both the 61508 Association and their education working group looking at competency requirements under the standard. He has also sat on some of the committee meetings for the CASS accreditation scheme. He assisted the HSE in developing notes on the application of risk graphs for IEC61508 and on the 61508 association.

Clive has worked on a number of accident investigations and has specialist knowledge of dust explosions. He has been directly involved in writing the HSE guidance for safety on sewage sludge dryers. He has also assisted the HSE in the development of the revision of the HSE guidance for the safe handling of combustible dusts.

Clive has given expert witness under cross examination in legal arbitration in Scotland. He has acted as an expert witness in mediation in England.

Clive has undertaken accident investigations for loss adjusters on three separate occasions, two of which were investigations into dust explosions on sewage sludge drying processes. Clive has once acted as expert arbitrator on sludge drying for a multinational company to settle the dispute between their contractor and their equipment companies within the group. Clive has also worked on five separate occasions supporting expert witness work as part of a team.

Clive de Salis has acted as expert witness on six occasions, four of which were on sludge drying cases. One case is in progress, one case went to legal arbitration and all the others settled before judgement was made.