Employment Law and Industrial Relations

Practice Summary

The Employment Team at Doughty Street Chambers is dynamic, flexible and well regarded with expertise in all areas of employment law.

We act almost exclusively for claimants. Our civil liberties ethos means we will not hesitate to go the ‘extra mile’ for our clients. We fight for the rights of individual employees, workers and trade unions at all levels – in internal disciplinary proceedings and regulatory proceedings, through the Employment Tribunals, to the Supreme Court and into Europe.

Our team members are particularly noted for their skills in:

discrimination claims of all kinds
cases involving trade unions and the rights of trade union members
claims with a public law element

Our team members are regularly instructed in high profile employment cases. Recently these have included:

the successful claim of age discrimination claim against the BBC brought by Miriam O’Reilly
representing the social workers in the Baby P case in internal disciplinary, professional conduct and employment tribunal hearings
securing the reinstatement of London Underground train operators Eamonn Lynch and Arwyn Thomas
the Supreme Court case concerning the right of representation in internal disciplinary proceedings
the case of a female fire arms officer at Gatwick airport who was awarded £350,000 in damages.

As a team we have a particular expertise in representing professionals from all disciplines including healthcare, social work, academia, law, finance, journalism, politics, sport and the military.

Our team members have significant experience in providing training in employment law including for the TUC, individual trade unions, the Council of Europe, the Bar Standards Board and for professional clients. We regularly write articles and books on employment and discrimination issues.