Cambridge law graduate Simon McIlwaine was admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in 1986. He joined the firm of IV Heap and Co in 1989, specialising in injury claims and insurance litigation. He has extensive (and fairly unique) experience of acting for both defence insurers and claimants.

He became a partner in IV Heap and Co in 1993, and Ian Heap and he merged the Heap Partnership with Ormerod Wilkinson Marshall in 1986.

He is also a partner in Ormerods, solicitors, specialising in personal injury and industrial disease litigation. He has successfully pursued a mesothelioma claim. He has handled HAVS and WRULD litigation, as well as claims arising out of military training accidents. He has also successfully pursued defamation claims.

He has been a member of the Law Society Personal Injury Panel since 1994 and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

A keen Rotaria, he is involved in charitable work and holds the Silver Medal for Humanitarian Service of the Mongolian Red Cross and is a Knight Grand Officer of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia, as well as a Kentucky Colonel and an Honorary Citizen of North Carolina.