LAWYER IN THE NEWSWho? Dr Hilary Barsey, 34-year-old assistant solicitor in the medical litigation department of 64-partner London-based Field Fisher Waterhouse.Why is she in the news? Represented an eight-year-old girl - left with multiple injuries following premature delivery owing to a mistake in calculating the length of her mother's pregnancy - awarded 450,000 compensation in the High Court last week.

For reasons never explained, after an ultrasound scan staff at Lewisham Hospital erroneously put the mother's delivery date at 32 weeks, rather than the usual 40 weeks.

The child was born by Caesarean section, and suffered complications - including a severe hearing problem, kidney failure and the amputation of part of the fingers on her right hand - because of her premature birth.Background: Graduated with a medical qualification from Charing Cross and Westminster medical school in 1991, and after a year of medical practice enrolled at Guildford College of Law in 1992.

She qualified with City firm Taylor Johnson Garratt in 1996, and from there joined Field Fisher Waterhouse.Route to the case: 'We were recommended by the Association for Victims of Medical Accidents, who we have a lot of dealings with.

Mymedical qualification certainly helps in these areas'.Thoughts on the case: 'The money will be used to give the girl extrasupport at school - she needs speech therapy and she's slightly behind with her lessons - but asubstantial part of the award is for the loss of her potential earnings.

The amputation of her fingers means that she won't be eligible for a number of careers, such as a touch typist, and her hearing defect means that she's unable to use a telephone, which will obviously be a problem'.

Dealing with the media: 'We've tried to keep as low a profile as possible.

The family didn't want to court publicity, as the girl is still at school, and didn't want her friends talking about the case.

All they want is for an error like this to never happen again'.Victoria MacCallum