Ulele Burnham

Ulele Burnham's practice comprises a mix of employment/discrimination, mental health and the overlapping areas of mental health and detention related public law.

Her employment/discrimination practice has tended to focus on individual rights, and within that area, equality law is the sphere in which she has particular interest and expertise. She has significant experience in representing Claimants in complex discrimination cases at tribunal and appellate levels. This experience includes claims made in relation to the new statutorily proscribed forms of discrimination (sexual orientation, religion and age) and the older statutory torts of race, sex and disability discrimination. Prior to the establishment of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), she regularly provided advice to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) on broad policy issues (counsel instructed to advise and represent the CRE as a claimant in litigation re discriminatory advertisements contrary to s.29/31 RRA) and has acted as counsel for the CRE as an intervenor in strategic litigation (R(Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre & anor v The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, CO/1143/2007, sole counsel: whether the NHM was in breach of its public duty to promote good race relations in approach adopted to the return of aboriginal remains in its custody; R(BSL/SAL) v Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs & Lord Chancellor & anor, CO/3335/2007, junior counsel: whether, in failing to take proper account of the disparate impact upon black and ethnic minority firms and practitioners, the proposal to reform legal aid provision in criminal cases contravened the race equality duties of the relevant public authorities).

Her developing expertise in relation to the 'new' grounds of prohibited discrimination (sexual orientation and religion or belief in particular) has, in large part, arisen out of her continued commitment to working with non-governmental organisations whose remit necessarily includes the promotion of the rights of sexual, religious and other minorities. She was junior counsel instructed by LIBERTY in M v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2006] 2 AC 91 HL (differential treatment of same-sex couples for purposes of child support legislation did not violate anti-discrimination provisions of ECHR; application to ECtHR pending). In recent years, collective labour law has also become an aspect of her employment practice: junior counsel in Smith v Kent County Council [2004] EWHC 412 QB (test case litigation on appropriate pay deductions for teachers on strike).

Her work in equality law goes beyond the employment sphere to encompass claims against public authorities (police, health and social service authorities, Primary Care Trusts, detaining hospitals and prisons) in respect of the provision of goods, facilities and services and Human Rights Act challenges. She is junior counsel instructed in relation to the ECHR compensation claims made on behalf of the "Belmarsh Detainees" (A & ors v United Kingdom: detainees subject to detention without trial pursuant to the provisions of Part 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001, alleged violations of their rights and the UK Government's obligations under articles 3, 5(1), 5(4), 5(5), 6, 13 and 14 ECHR).

In the field of mental health and connected areas of law, her work involves tribunal representation, public and private law claims, for and against detaining hospitals, local authorities, the Home Office and the Police. She is an extremely experienced tribunal advocate and has acted in a number of judicial review claims cutting across issues of forced medication, capacity (R(Taylor) v Dr. Haydn-Smith & Ors [2005] EWHC 1668 (Admin)), the scope of guardianship orders, after-care service provision and, more recently, victims rights pursuant to the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004. She was junior counsel in Johnson v UK (1999) EHRR 296 and R(B) v Ashworth HA and another [2005] UKHL 20 (HL) (treatment of detained patients for non-classified mental disorders permissible under the MHA). She is a co-author of the forthcoming "Butterworths New Law Guide to the Mental Capacity Act 2005" and receives instructions from a wide range of public bodies, including the Official Solicitor, in respect of capacity and best interests related litigation.

Ulele Burnham is a member and former Chair of the Executive Committee of the Discrimination Law Association (Chair 2004-2006), a member of the Advisory Board of the AHRC Research Centre for Law Gender and Sexuality and was for 5 years (2002-2006) an occasional tutor in Labour Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is regularly invited to provide specialist training on new/proposed equality and human rights legislation and policy (recent training: "The Commission for Equality and Human Rights", Sweet & Maxwell, "drafting Discrimination Law Association response to government consultHot issues in Employment Law", September 2005; significant responsibility for ations on Discrimination Law Review and Incitement to Racial Hatred Bill in 2005-7) and has delivered expert training on equality and all aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights to lawyers and the judiciary for the Council of Europe in several Central European countries (Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Albania). Prior to coming to the bar she was a part-time lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

Relevant publications include:

Article, "The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007", Briefings, Vol. 31, June 2007.

Article, "Equality and Human Rights", Equal Opportunities Review (2006), 152.

Book Review of "Partnership Rights, Free Movement and EU Law", Briefings, Vol. 26, October 2005.

Editorial: co authored w Henrietta Hill, "Big, black and dangerous?: race discrimination in mental health care and treatment", Briefings, Vol. 25, June 2005.

Public Law Update on "The interpretive obligation under s.3 of HRA 1998 in Ghaidan and SS for Work and Pensions v M", New Law Journal, Vol. 154, No. 7154, pp.1783-1785.

Case note; "Bellinger v Bellinger : When Compliance is Incompatible", European Human Rights Law Review, Special issue of Privacy, 2003.

Article: "Negligent False Imprisonment - Scope for Re-Emergence?", Modern Law Review, 1998, Vol. 61, pp.573-579.

last updated November 2007

Year of Call

1997

Education

BA (Sussex), MPhil (Cantab) Dip Law

Email Address

u.burnham@doughtystreet.co.uk

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Specialist Teams

Member :

• Actions Against the police
• Community Care & Health
• Employment and Discrimination
• Human Rights
• International Law Group
• Mental Health
• Public and Administrative Law