Inquiry team

Director General and Secretary to the Inquiry

Nicole Kett started work as Director General and Secretary to the Inquiry on 13 June 2022. She was previously Director for Strategy and Policy in the Ministry of Defence. Nicole has spent the majority of her career in the public service, in the areas of social policy development and implementation, and strategic finance.

Mark Fisher served as Director General and Secretary to the Inquiry from June 2017-June 2022.

Counsel

Counsel to the Inquiry

Richard Millett QC has been appointed as Lead Counsel to the Inquiry. Richard was called to the Bar in 1985 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2003. He has extensive experience of handling complex commercial disputes in a range of specialist areas, with an emphasis on advocacy in court, arbitration and other tribunals. He also sits as a Deputy High Court Judge.

Richard will be supported by Kate Grange QC and Andrew Kinnier QC.

Kate Grange QC was called to the Bar in 1998 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2017. She has particular expertise in relation to commercial, construction, public and inquiry law.

Andrew Kinnier QC was called to the Bar in 1996 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2018. He has particular expertise in product liability law, public procurement, public and administrative law, local government law, health and safety law and environmental law.

Junior Counsel

Kerrie Ann Rowan
Naima Asif
Samantha Bonner
Aphra Bruce-Jones
Samuel Burrett
Joseph Byrne
Kate Chidgey
Tom Cockroft
Hannah Curtain
Helena Drage
George Eyre
Kate Fortescue
Adam Gadd
Harriet Gilchrist
Rose Grogan
Emily Hamilton
Jamila Hassan
Emma Hynes
Zeenat Islam
Samantha Jones
Dermot Keating
Daniel Laking
Kirsty Lea
Natasha Lloyd Owen
Priya Malhotra
David Messling
Scarlett Milligan
Daniel O'Donoghue
Ricky Powell
Bilal Rawat
Sarah Read
Timothy Salisbury
Vida Simpeh
Shanthi Sivakumaran
Michael Standing
Rachel Sullivan
Camilla Ter Haar
Rachel Troup
Alex Ustych

The Inquiry is also supported by a document review team comprising junior barristers and paralegals.

Solicitors

Solicitor to the Inquiry

Caroline Featherstone qualified as a registered nurse in 1986. She worked in the NHS until she changed career in 1998 when she was admitted as a solicitor. Having spent some years working in private practice, Caroline joined the Government Legal Department in 2006 and was most recently a Deputy Director leading a large litigation team.

Deputy Solicitors

Cathy Kennedy
Julia Dickins
Ross Howarth
Shafi Nasser

Assistant Solicitors

Rosalynn Try-Hane
Holly Waldron
Hollie Waugh
Thomas Wood

Secretariat

Team

Thomas Blackburn

Laura Brooks

Hannah Bryant

Paul Edens

Lucy Johnson

Kathy Knox

Christine May

Curtis Moise

Aisha-Asher Morgan

Mel Peffer

Mike Thomas

Kana Natarajan

Kay Chauhan

Nav Chauhan

Inquiry Diversity Statistics

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry is committed to promoting equality and diversity.

The Inquiry has conducted a survey collecting data on the gender and ethnic diversity of the Inquiry team, including the Inquiry Panel, Counsel and legal and secretariat teams. The available data on the Inquiry team as of 31 December 2021 is shown below.

Our skilled team is diverse at every level, with two thirds of the Inquiry panel being from BAME background. We will continue to monitor the diversity of our workforce and will publish a snapshot annually for the remainder of the Inquiry.

Charts