Sarah Moore
Partner
Leading international and product safety lawyer
Sarah specialises in large multiparty group actions on behalf of claimants based in the UK and overseas across a wide range of issues including environmental and product liability claims.
Her international work includes acting on behalf of claimants in Colombia, the Ivory Coast and Iraq against British registered companies and the UK Government.
Sarah's UK cases have included representing groups of Claimants against "Big Pharma" companies including Diageo plc., Johnson & Johnson, Allergan UK Limited, and most recently AstraZeneca UK Limited, in product liability claims brought under the Consumer Protection Act 1987. These cases have typically involved a wide range of defective medicines or medical devices from Thalidomide through to metal-on-metal hips and breast implants.
Educated at Cambridge University, and trained at City Firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and Paris, Sarah joined Leigh Day in 2006. Sarah initially took up partnership at international Law Firm Hausfeld LLP between 2020 and December 2023, before returning to Leigh Day as a Partner in January 2024.
What Sarah's clients say
You have obviously changed my life forever, I don't know how I can ever thank you and your firm enough for that. I am forever grateful. It has been such a pleasure dealing with you through this whole process.
David Tickell, thalidomide client
Notable cases include leading roles in Yao Essai Motto & Prs v. Trafigura Ltd & Trafigura Beheer BV [2007], for Claimants in the Ivory Coast who suffered injuries and losses as a result of toxic waste dumping; Gee and Others vs. Depuy International Limited [2008] EWHC 1208 (QB), a landmark case in product liability; and a recent Intervention on behalf of the Environmental Law Foundation before the Supreme Court in The Manchester Ship Canal Company Ltd (Appellant) vs. United Utilities Water Ltd (Respondent), [2023], a case involving alleged "sewage dumping" into UK waterways.
Sarah is currently leading a claim on behalf of a group of individuals and bereaved families impacted by a rare, but potentially catastrophic, immunological syndrome known as Vaccine Induced Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia (VITT), linked with the COVID19 AstraZeneca Vaccine (Vaxzevria).
Sarah is an active member of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law's Product Liability Forum and is currently joint coordinator of APIL's Product Liability Special Interest Group. She is also a frequent contributor to the New Law Journal.
What people say about Sarah
"Sarah Moore is my solicitor, I have found her knowledgeable, accessible, professional, friendly and always prepared to go that extra mile." Irene Morris, client
"You have obviously changed my life for ever, I don't know how I can ever thank you and your firm enough for that. I am forever grateful. It has been such a pleasure dealing with you through this whole process." David Tickell, thalidomide client
What the directories say
She takes intensely complicated legal matters in her stride and has a very practical approach.
Chambers 2024
Sarah Moore provides real attention to detail in cases. Lots of experience, understands everything about it, and a thought leader as member of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law Product Liability Forum
Client testimonial, Legal 500
Sarah in the news
- Those injured by the AstraZeneca vaccine can no longer be silenced The Telegraph 8.11.23
- Covid vaccine claims could hit £110m Mail Online 27.2.22
- Over 500 people seek compensation for problems caused by Covid jabs - but not one payout Mirror 19.2.22
- British Gymnastics: Group of 17 women and girls taking legal action over alleged abuse BBC 26.2.21
- Sarah Moore commented on the breast implant cancer cases on Channel 5 News 17.l.1.20
- Anger over UK's failure to ban breast implants linked to 61 cancer cases Guardian 7.1.20
- Landmarks in law: the case of the dead snail in the ginger beer Guardian 3.10.19
Read Sarah's blogs
Holding polluters to account: from big farmer to big pharma
Sarah Moore and Harry Wilkinson discuss the impact of pharmaceutical contamination on waterways.
Water polluters in Yorkshire: the spillages costing people their health and leisure
Sarah Moore and Katie Bohl discuss water pollution in Yorkshire rivers
West Midlands sodium cyanide toxic chemical spillage
The recent toxic chemical spillage of sodium cyanide contaminating a 12-mile stretch of canals in the West Midlands highlights the growing environmental crisis of water pollution in the UK.
Sarah's publications
- Going Dutch on Product Liability Law? - New Law Journal
- Mind the (accountability) gap - New Law Journal
- The new Product Liability Directive: fireworks or fizzle? - New Law Journal
- Product liability: more David, less Goliath? - New Law Journal
- The “Peter Parker principle” - New Law Journal
- Into the unknown - New Law Journal
- Covid-19: Following the herd - New Law Journal
- Fairytale of New York: product liability law in the UK - New Law Journal
- Power to the people - New Law Journal
- A bitter pill - New Law Journal
- Where there’s smoke - New Law Journal
- Time for a litigation supplement? - New Law Journal
What the directories say
Sarah is highly empathetic and very thorough - she leaves no stone unturned.
Chambers 2024
The team was further bolstered by the return of Sarah Moore from Hausfeld & Co LLP in January 2024
Legal 500
Accreditations
Vaccine tragedy: Campaigners’ hopes raised by meeting with Wes Streeting
Three women whose loved ones lost their lives or suffered life-changing injuries after receiving the AstraZeneca covid vaccine met Health Secretary Wes Streeting to make their case for a reform of the Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme (VDPS).
Woman receives five-figure settlement following cancer diagnosis linked to her breast implants
A woman from Sheffield has received a five-figure settlement from Allergan Ltd after being diagnosed with breast implant-related cancer.
AstraZeneca formally admits that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause rare side effect
In court documents, AstraZeneca has admitted for the first time that its covid vaccine can cause a rare side-effect.