Anselm Eldergill has had a long and distinguished career in public service related to mental health law. He has served as a judge, chaired numerous government inquiries, and held leadership positions with regulatory bodies. Additionally, he has authored several influential textbooks and publications and holds academic positions where he lectures on mental health law.

1. ANSELM ELDERGILL ─ RESUME ─ MAY 2019
PUBLIC SERVICE
Judge of the Court of Protection (mental health/incapacity court) from 2010 onwards
24 significant judgments reported in the All England Reports Digest, Community Care Law Reports, Court of Protection Law
Reports, Wills and Trusts Law Reports, Mental Health Law Online and Bailii
Member of the United Nations Expert Judicial Group on Capacity and Access to Justice
Chairman of the Mental Health Tribunal Legislative Reform Working Group ─ Ministry of Justice & Department
of Health Independent Review of the Mental Health Act, 2018.
Mental Health Act Commissioner, 1992-1998
Chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission Law & Ethics Committee
Head of Mental Health Act Commission Statutory Complaints Investigations
Chairman of the Review of National Statutory Complaints Investigations Procedures (Department of Health)
Member of the Mental Health Act Commission’s Mentally Disordered Offenders' Committee and author of its
papers on the reform of Part III of the Mental Health Act 1983
Legal adviser to Mental Health Commission in Dublin (training lawyers in the Republic of Ireland on their new
mental health tribunal scheme)
Legal member of the Mental Health Commission for Northern Ireland in Belfast
Chairman of the MHCNI’s Committee on Mental Health Law Reform
Advising Her Majesty’s Prison Service on the procedures for discretionary lifers’ hearings
Legal Chairman of ten Government Inquiries following the commission of homicides and numerous inquiries into
suicides and serious incidents of abuse, including:
2008 ─ Inquiry into the Death of GB, CNWL, London. In print.
2006 ─ Chairman of the Independent Inquiry into the Care and Treatment of Alfred Garner and six other patients
(Westminster). 4,000 pages of evidence. Report 137 pages + appendices.
2004 ─ Chairman of two independent inquiries following homicides (Birmingham). 12,000 pages of evidence. Report 173 +
xii pages.
2002 ─ Chairman of the Confidential Review of the X Eating Disorders Unit (London). 2,600 pages of evidence. Report 94
pages.
2003 ─ Chairman of one independent inquiry following homicide (Kent). 14,000 pages of evidence. Report 283 + xvi pages
(+ appendices).
2002 ─ Chairman of three independent inquiries following homicides (Hampshire). 13,000 pages of evidence. Report 173 +
viii pages.
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2. 2000 ─ Chairman of two independent inquiries following homicides (Berkshire). 13,500 pages of evidence. Two reports: 73 +
viii pages and 79 + vi pages.
Tribunal Judge, 2005-2011
Assistant Coroner, Essex
Member of two Department of Health Reviews of Mental Health Review Tribunal decision-making, pre-2000.
Legal aid practitioner in south London and Kentish Town working on behalf of people with mental health
problems for 25 years.
ACADEMIA
Honorary Professor of Mental Capacity Law, University College, London (UCL is ranked 7th in the QS World
University Rankings)
Lecturer and trainer, Academy of European Law (European Judicial College): Mental Health Law, Disability Law,
Human Rights, Criminal law; Lecturer and trainer, Judicial College for England & Wales.
Visiting Professor of Mental Health Law, Northumbria University
Alexander Maxwell Law Scholarship (the leading UK law scholarship for barristers and solicitors)
David Hallett Prize for Government
Member of the editorial board of the Journal of Mental Health Law
Member of the editorial board of Medicine, Science & the Law
1400-page textbook on Mental Health Law (reprinted twice)
Extensive publications and conferences record, at home and abroad, for publications such as The Princeton University
Law Journal, Johns Hopkins University, The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and The Guardian, including:
Mental Health Review Tribunals — Law & Practice (Sweet & Maxwell, lxxvii, 1333 pages). Sold out and reprinted twice
Court of Protection Handbook (Co-author, LAG, London, 928pp, 2014,3rd
ed. due 2018)
Mental Health Law (The Law Society, London, 2019)
The Patient's Voice (Ed. J Young-Mason, Davis & Co, Philadelphia, 2015)
Compassion and the Law: A Judicial Perspective (Elder Law Journal Vol. 5 No. 4, November 2015, pp 392-398). This
article was delivered as a paper at a one-day international symposium on ‘Law and Compassion’, hosted by the Institute of
Advanced Legal Studies in London and funded by the Socio-Legal Studies Association
Psychopathy, the law and individual rights, ‘Princeton University Law Journal’, Volume III, Issue 2, Spring 1999 (abstract
published in The Guardian newspaper)
The Best is the Enemy of the Good: Part II, ‘Journal of Mental Health Law’, December 2008; The Best is the Enemy of the
Good: Part I, ‘Journal of Mental Health Law’, May 2008
‘The law and individual rights’ in Personality Disorder and Serious Offending (ed. Newrith et al.), Hodder Arnold, Oxford,
2006
The Principles of Mental Health Legislation, ‘Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology’, Johns Hopkins University, 2005
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3. Is Anyone Safe? Civil Compulsion under the Draft Mental Health Bill, ‘Journal of Mental Health Law’, December 2002.
The Legal Structure of Mental Health Services, ‘Journal of Mental Health Law’, September 2002
The Mental Health Act Commission, ‘Journal of Forensic Psychiatry’, March 2002
‘Reforming Inquiries following Homicides’, JMHL, October 1999
The legal logistics of independent inquiries: Common steps and principles for navigating through tragedy, British Journal of
Health Care Management, May 1998
Social Exclusion and Mental Health, Mental Health Lawyers Association Occasional Paper, June 2004
Lecturer at numerous national and international conferences.
Recent conference presentations include lecturing at the European Judicial College in Trier (training EU judges on mental health
and mental capacity law), delivering a lecture on mental capacity law to the Lord Chief Justice and other senior judges in Belfast,
delivering the keynote address at the annual national ‘Taking Stock conference in Manchester (the previous addresses being given
by the President of the Family Division, Lady Hale and Lord Justice Baker) and at the Scottish Law Commission Mental
Capacity conference in Glasgow; presentations on law reform with the Irish Minister and our Law Commission; a Chatham
House conference on press reporting and the Court of Protection; invitational lectures in Dublin on Irish legislative proposals;
and delivering a lecture at the Welsh national conference on mental capacity.
Numerous other national and international presentations at institutions such as the Sorbonne addressing subjects such as
legislative reform, deprivation of liberty, mental incapacity, criminal law provisions and mentally disordered offenders,
comparative mental health law; international law and mental health, homicide inquiries and untoward incident reviews and the
European Convention on Human Rights and Mental Health.
DRAFTING
Undertook the government review of the Mental Health Act Commission and formulated proposals for its reform
— Legislation Branch, Department of Health. Report 226 + xviii pages, 2001
Appointed by the Department of Health to draft the new departmental guidance and ‘sectioning forms’ in relation
to the deprivation of liberty provisions in the Mental Capacity Act 2005
Appointed by the Department of Health to draft a Mental Health Act Forms Manual for use by the NHS and local
social services authorities
Appointed by the Department of Health to draft the community treatment order ‘sectioning forms’ under the
Mental Health Act 2007
Member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal Rules Committee
CRIMINAL LAW
Conduct of murder and manslaughter cases; Preparing over one thousand criminal cases, including rapes, armed
robbery, etc; Extensive advocacy experience, including Crown Court bail applications; Attending police stations,
identification parades, post-mortems, conferences, trials.
PUBLIC LAW
Judicial review; habeas corpus; chairing government inquiries; Coroner’s Court proceedings.
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4. CIVIL & FAMILY LAW
Tort (assault and battery, trespass to the person and to goods, police misconduct); care proceedings; divorce
proceedings; Coroners’ court proceedings; landlord and tenant (possession proceedings, disrepair, nuisance);
contract and partnership law.
MEDIA WORK
This includes leading televised press conferences dealing with the publication of homicide and other reports;
interviews for various television programmes on the law (BBC, Channel 4, Canadian TV); advising the BBC’s Public
Eye series; being interviewed for Law Society and LNTV law training videos; providing comments and articles for
daily newspapers, including The Guardian, The Independent and The Times; representations and evidence to
Parliament.
PRO BONO WORK
President of the Mental Health Lawyers Association, 2003-2010
President of the Institute of Mental Health Act Practitioners, 2005-2010
Honorary Legal Adviser to the African Regional Council for Mental Health, 2004-2010
Chairman, London NHS Ethics Committee
Chief Assessor, Interviewer and Member of the Law Society's Mental Health Panel
High volume free legal advice service for service users referred by MIND’s Legal Department
Legal Adviser to the Tooting Advocacy Project
Inaugural member of the LINK mental health scheme
Founding a 24-hour London police station scheme in the 1980s for people with mental health problems
Writing mental health legal rights leaflets for MIND
Drafting the Law Society’s pilot MHRT rights leaflet and application form
Member of Network for the Handicapped
PROFESSIONAL STANDING
Included each year in the Leaders’ Profiles — Mental Health section of Chambers’ & Partners’ A Guide to the
Legal Profession. Ranked 1:
‘Anselm Eldergill is considered “authoritative” and has been recommended again as a leading authority on the Mental Health
Act, particularly the detention, tribunal and criminal law provisions’ (and in subsequent years)
'The sage of mental health law, he is renowned for being “hugely clever” and “a highly respected academic and commentator”
with “the best theoretical approach.” A heavyweight practitioner who chairs and is involved in judicial inquiries nationwide.'
2001/02, Ranked 1: '
“Academically brilliant,” whilst able to “link up law and practice,” he has chaired six NHS inquiries concerning mental health
patients who have committed serious crimes. In addition to this, his “authoritative, thoughtful and reliable” textbook has …
elicited praise for its “empathy for the plight of those suffering from mental health disorders.'
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5. Chambers Directory, 'Leaders in their Field’, USA and Europe volumes
Entry in three volumes of Who's Who in America (USA)
Entry in the Dictionary of International Biography
No complaints to professional body and no claims on professional insurance during 25 years in practice
OTHER POSITIONS HELD
Head of Mental Health Law, Eversheds (one of the largest law firms in the world, with 40 offices across the UK,
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia)
PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Full Name Anselm Charles Eldergill
Date of Birth 21 March 1959
Nationality British
Mobile +44 797 119 8742
Email medicolegal@email.com
Education
1969 – 1977 Stamford School, Stamford, Lincolnshire (local 11+ grammar school)
1978 – 1981 London School of Economics & Political Science (B.Sc. in Government)
1981 – 1982 St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford (research in American Political History)
1983 – 1985 The College of Law, Chancery Lane, London EC4
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6. Chambers Directory, 'Leaders in their Field’, USA and Europe volumes
Entry in three volumes of Who's Who in America (USA)
Entry in the Dictionary of International Biography
No complaints to professional body and no claims on professional insurance during 25 years in practice
OTHER POSITIONS HELD
Head of Mental Health Law, Eversheds (one of the largest law firms in the world, with 40 offices across the UK,
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia)
PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Full Name Anselm Charles Eldergill
Date of Birth 21 March 1959
Nationality British
Mobile +44 797 119 8742
Email medicolegal@email.com
Education
1969 – 1977 Stamford School, Stamford, Lincolnshire (local 11+ grammar school)
1978 – 1981 London School of Economics & Political Science (B.Sc. in Government)
1981 – 1982 St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford (research in American Political History)
1983 – 1985 The College of Law, Chancery Lane, London EC4
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