Darshan Patel

Darshan is regularly instructed in all areas of employment and discrimination law, and he advises and acts for employees, trade unions, and employers from private and public sectors. He has substantial experience of employment tribunal proceedings and regularly attends multi-day final hearings. He has been instructed in cases involving the full range of employment law issues, including questions of employee/worker status, whistleblowing, holiday pay, discrimination, TUPE, Agency Worker Regulations, flexible working and unfair dismissal. Darshan has particular expertise in contractual disputes.

Darshan has experience of collective work, including claims of collective redundancy and of failure to consult under TUPE, and has appeared as sole counsel in the Central Arbitration Committee (Unison v Cornerstone TUR1/1092(2019)).

Darshan has appellate experience, having appeared in the EAT, and in the Court of Appeal on multiple occasions. He also has experience of High Court litigation.

Recent highlights of Darshan’s work include:

• PCS v Secretary of State for the Home Department and others [2024] UKSC (judgment awaited), led by Oliver Segal KC.
• Turner-Robson and others v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police 3314825/2022 – ET decision considering whether a ‘lateral move’ was lawful positive action for a BAME officer in a police force.
• K Mohammed v DEFRA 2202713/2023 – ET judgment on the scope of the ‘ready, willing and able to work’ doctrine, regarding whether an employee incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital after an alleged crime was entitled to sick pay whilst so incarcerated.
• Anglian Windows Ltd v Webb [2023] EAT 138. EAT judgment on whether a partner of a partnership can be an employee of a third party.
• Secretary of State for the Home Department and others v Cox and others [2023] EWCA Civ 551, led by Oliver Segal KC. Court of Appeal judgment on variation/waiver, and on the meaning and interpretation of the Third Parties (Contracts) Act 1999 in the context of union suing for the removal of check-off by government departments.
• Cox v SSHD [2022] EWHC 680 (QB); Crane v DEFRA [2022] EWHC 1626 (QB), Smith v HMRC [2022] EWHC 3188 (KB), led by Oliver Segal KC. High Court judgments on contractual interpretation, variation/waiver and the meaning and interpretation of the Third Parties (Contracts) Act 1999 in the context of union suing for the removal of check-off by three government departments.
• Nicol v Blackfriars Settlement [2018] 9 WLUK 353. Court of Appeal judgment confirming that an appeal to the EAT against a registrar’s grant or refusal of an extension of time to appeal against an ET judgment should proceed by way of rehearing Darshan successfully appeared as sole counsel for the appellant.

Darshan can accept instructions on a public access basis where appropriate. He regularly advises on settlement agreements.

Darshan is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and of the Employment Law Bar Association.

Darshan has substantial experience in the conduct of internal processes, including investigations in workplaces. He has assisted in a disciplinary investigation regarding allegations of sexual harassment, a grievance investigation involving allegations of race discrimination and has conducted a grievance appeal process involving allegations of age discrimination. He has also carried out a wide-ranging mediation/review of internal structures and processes for a large organisation following concerns raised under the Equality Act 2010, and a race equality review of an educational establishment.

Darshan frequently advises and represents Claimants and Defendants in this area of law. He appears frequently in interlocutory hearings, CCMCs, applications, disposal hearings, small claims and fast-track trials in this area. Darshan is increasingly instructed in high-value claims and recently acted in a multi-track matter involving issues as to the valuation of future loss of earnings in the context of possible disability and the Ogden 8 guidance. This settled shortly before trial for a six-figure sum.

Darshan drafts pleadings and advises on matters concerning all stages of litigation. Darshan’s expertise includes employer’s liability (including noise-induced hearing loss), clinical negligence, occupiers’ liability, road traffic accidents and highways claims. He also has experience of criminal injuries compensation appeals.

Darshan also has a special interest in inquests. He spent approximately six months in the Inquests team of a leading respondent solicitors’ firm on a secondment as in-house counsel, where he regularly advised clients on inquest matters, and appeared in pre-inquest reviews and inquests.

Prior to joining Old Square, Darshan gained substantial experience of personal injury law from pupillage at a leading clinical negligence set and from his work as a County Court Advocate. Darshan is a member of the Personal Injury Bar Association.

Darshan has a strong grounding in the healthcare sector from his clinical negligence background, and from acting for a number of NHS Trusts in employment proceedings. Darshan has recently advised clients on GMC proceedings and has appeared in a number of hearings before Social Work England (including a successful application for discontinuance). This builds on exposure he has had to a number of different regulators (GMC, NMC, GDC, Social Work England) and to internal disciplinary hearings during pupillage and subsequent training. Darshan is keen to further develop his interest in this area.

Darshan studied privacy law and defamation as part of his LLM whilst at LSE, and has a growing practice in this field. He has delivered talks on the GDPR and on privacy law, and has been instructed on a range of data-protection matters, particularly in the employment and healthcare related spheres. His experience has included drafting pleadings, advising on liability and quantum issues, and appearing in interlocutory hearings in the High Court.

• Supreme Court judgment upholding union’s right to bring claim as a third party for the removal of check-off by government departments
• Six members of Old Square Chambers appointed to EHRC panel
• Judgment handed down in the case of Secretary of State for the Home Department & others v Cox & others
• Smith and others v The Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs [2022] EWHC 3188 (KB)
• CA confirms that the EAT must conduct a re-hearing of a Registrar’s decision to refuse an extension