Discrimination Law

Introduction

7BR members advise on and appear in a wide range of discrimination related matters in the Employment Tribunal (ET), Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), appellate courts and elsewhere. 7BR act in matters involving allegations of victimisation, harassment, unequal remuneration or opportunity, unfair or wrongful dismissal, grievances, whistleblowing, contractual breaches and/or statutory minimum wage protection.

However, 7BR members also regularly appear in discrimination matters pertaining to consumer law, facilities, education, health, transport, criminal justice, the provision of legal or financial services, and immigration, in the County Court, the High Court, the Administrative Court, the Court of Appeal and beyond.

Among other characteristics protected under the Equality Act and elsewhere, our clients’ cases involve discrimination against:

• Sex, gender, marital status, maternity and paternity
• Race, ethnicity and religion
• Mental and physical disability
• Trade union status.

7BR acts for claimants, respondents and other interested parties, providing the highest levels of service and legal excellence, identifying and executing the best and most appropriate legal strategies, and providing first class advocacy and negotiation skill throughout.

7BR’s depth of knowledge and skill in handling discrimination matters

In legal directories, 7BR’s leading members in this space are praised for having “great depth of employment law knowledge,” being “highly respected” and “very experienced,” and for achieving “excellent results” while offering “exceptional client care.” We are fortunate to lay claim to “experts with knowledge across the employment field, including all aspects of discrimination law.” Additionally, team leader Elaine Banton was recently recognised as The Times Lawyer of The Week, for her leading role in the complex, protracted discrimination based litigation, Rajput v Commerzbank.

Outside the ET, 7BR’s discrimination law experts are acclaimed for their exceptional “ability to articulate the issues and nuances of developing areas of law with clarity,” their excellence in negotiation, their “encyclopaedic knowledge” and “real passion,” as well as the ability to “get to the nub of very complex issues with ease.”

Moreover, the breadth and depth of 7BR’s members’ experience and training allows them to anticipate the full gamut of our opponents’ legal arguments, as members act for: judges; bankers; senior executives, professional athletes and regulated professionals; trade unions; various businesses, including blue chips, SMEs, banks and insurers; NGOs, and; government bodies, including NHS Trusts, police forces, local authorities, educational institutions, HMRC and the Prison Service, among many others.

The breadth of 7BR’s capabilities throughout discrimination litigation and beyond

7BR members act at all stages in discrimination cases, including regularly providing barristers to advise on and/or conduct internal investigations after allegations have been raised with senior management. For these assignments, members deliver clarity by thoroughly examining internal evidence to identify and anticipate the full breadth of potential legal issues, drawing on internationally recognised and often multi-disciplinary expertise across employment, but also in professional discipline and regulatory work. This allows our members to identify a much broader range of potential issues, also applying criminal, public or commercial law where relevant. This supports the smooth management of cases going forward, minimising the emergence of difficult and expensive issues down the line.

7BR’s expertise on disclosure and legal privilege is particularly important when managing and/or advising on these internal investigations, and we complement this with the highest levels of sensitivity and discretion, particularly when it comes to the media.

Where matters progress, 7BR members advise on and support a wide range of tools to resolve matters outside of courts and tribunals, leading and hosting negotiations, mediations and other legal discussions externally or from 7BR’s state of the art premises at 7 Bedford Row. Among our broad chambers, 7BR also offers excellence mediation and in international arbitration.

Externally, members address cutting edge issues before parliamentary select committees, for example with regards to discrimination against menopausal women, and appear as delegates on United Nations commissions focused on addressing discrimination worldwide, such as the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

7BR members also lead a wide variety of lectures, seminars and professional training on discrimination in the legal sector and beyond, for example through educating large audiences of legal professionals with bespoke mock trials in 7BR’s seminar suite.

Notable cases

• Rajput v Commerzbank, a seven year long, high value maternity claim succeeding for the second time in the ET in 2022 (after first succeeding in 2018), following remission from the The claim was centred around sex and maternity discrimination and harassment relating to being passed over for promotion to Head of Markets Compliance. Rajput was described as having “an unhealthy obsession” with work when she attended a meeting early in maternity leave, but was ultimately awarded over £300,000 in pre-dismissal compensation. The case was applauded nationwide, for example here.
• Maria Rooney v Leicester CC: the first case dealing with menopausal symptoms as a disability under the Equality Act 2010, successfully obtaining a finding of disability by way of menopausal symptoms following remission from the EAT, reported here.
• C v Ministry of Justice and A Charity: negotiating a favourable settlement in a complex case involving allegations of both direct and indirect racial discrimination, stemming from the separation of a mother from her infant while in prison custody.
• Akay v Newcastle University: instructed for the Defendant in a personal injury claim for stress at work was struck out for abuse of process having already been litigated in the Employment Tribunal, following the rule in Henderson v Henderson.
• Risby v LB of Waltham Forest, successful in having a disability discrimination and unfair dismissal claim dismissed after over-turning 26 of its 27 grounds, in a 12-day hearing in the EAT, where the claimant had been dismissed for using racist language. The judge referred to counsel’s “telling critique” of both the expert report and examination of the claimant’s expert. The claimant’s further appeal to the Court of Appeal was also dismissed.
• Afrifa v Goldman Sachs: a high profile Employment Tribunal disability discrimination claim brought by a banking analyst with ADHD.
• HM & Others v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions: examining whether discrimination on the grounds of marital status constituted a breach of human rights in a claim for state financed bereavement benefits in the Upper Tribunal.
• Stephen Yaxley-Lennon v Cambridgeshire Police (2019): Successful defence of a case brought by Tommy Robinson for harassment, Equality Act discrimination and breach of human rights.