Employment & Discrimination:
Daisy is an employment specialist who is regularly instructed in complex and high value cases in both the employment tribunal and the civil courts. Her knowledge of civil litigation means she is well placed to advise clients on jurisdictional matters, employment disputes, breach of contract claims, and discrimination claims in the civil courts. She is also experienced in advising clients and acting in disputes over international jurisdiction and the territorial scope of legislation.
Appellate work
- Represented Wicked Vision in the Court of Appeal (led by Nadia Motraghi KC and Rad Kohanzad) in Rice v Wicked Vision. This appeal concerns (i) the ratio of the Court of Appeal’s earlier decision in Timis v Osipov and (ii) the correct statutory construction and approach to claims for dismissal as a detriment when brought by an employee against an employer under s.47B Employment Rights Act 1996. Judgment has been reserved.
- Instructed in an appeal to the EAT (led by Jane Russell KC) relating to discrimination on the grounds of gender critical beliefs, due to be heard in 2026.
- Instructed in an appeal to the EAT (unled) in a whistleblowing case, due to be heard in 2026.
- Successfully represented a corporate respondent in the EAT (unled). The appeal concerned the distinction between continuing acts and one-off acts with continuing consequences for the purposes of the time limit provisions under the Equality Act 2010.
- Drafted an application for an extension of time within which to lodge an appeal to the EAT.
- Drafted grounds of appeal in an appeal concerning the test for whether a fair trial is still possible under the tribunal’s strike out rules.
- Successfully resisted an appeal against a Registrar’s Order in the EAT (unled).
Employment Tribunal work
- Succeeded in an application for anonymity for a claimant in a claim for discrimination based on gender reassignment.
- Successfully represented a claimant doctor in a five-day victimisation hearing. The claimant had raised allegations that the respondent’s pay system may disadvantage overseas-qualified doctors. The respondent argued that it had not terminated the doctor’s locum contract because of the protected act, but because of the manner in which he made the protected act, namely that he had approached pay negotiations inappropriately.
- Successfully represented the respondent in a two-week whistleblowing trial: Cox v Adecco. This was a case in which the claimant had, twice, appealed to the EAT on preliminary matters before the case reached a final hearing in the tribunal.
- Successfully represented a foreign government in a dispute over whether the Employment Tribunal had international jurisdiction under post-Brexit legislation (section 15C of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982) to hear a claim brought by a consultant working remotely in London. The Tribunal determined that the claimant did not have an “individual contract of employment” with the respondent and, accordingly, the tribunal did not have international jurisdiction to hear the claim.
- Successfully represented a respondent GP Practice in an eight-day hearing. An ex-Partner of the Practice brought a claim (with a pleaded value of over £150,000) for sex and maternity/pregnancy discrimination and constructive expulsion under ss.44 and 46 Equality Act 2010. The claimant alleged that the partners had unlawfully made significant financial decisions about how to run the practice during Covid without her input, and that this had forced her to resign from the partnership.
- Succeeded in a costs application against a claimant who had been legally represented up until the costs hearing. The respondent was awarded 100% of its claimed costs on the basis that the claimant had unreasonably pursued claims which had no merit.
- Successfully represented the respondent in a five-day religious discrimination hearing. The claimant, a social worker, made allegations that she had been instructed by her employer, a Council, to wear a rainbow-coloured lanyard at work. She claimed she had refused to do so on the basis of her faith.
- Successfully represented the claimant, a minister of religion, in a three-day hearing to establish worker-status, cross examining multiple witnesses with the assistance of a Punjabi translator.
- Attended a strike injunction in the High Court with Rebecca Tuck KC, acting for the union in defending the application by the employer. The matter in issue concerned whether the ballot paper complied with s.229(2D) TULR(C)A 1992: that the voting paper must indicate the period of time within which the industrial action is expected to take place.
Discrimination in the civil courts
- Achieved settlement (to the full pleaded value of the claim) for a transgender man in a claim against a US law firm.
- Drafted grounds of appeal in an appeal to the High Court in a discrimination in services claim.
- Instructed to defend various discrimination claims brought by Irish Travellers against pub landlords in the civil courts.
- Instructed in various discrimination in services claims, including a claim concerning a transgender claimant who has been excluded from competing in a sports competition.
