Emily Skinner

Overview

Emily joined chambers after successfully completing pupillage in October 2021. Since then, she has been building a busy practice in Chamber’s core practice areas. Emily has particular expertise in employment law having been an employment solicitor at Hogan Lovells prior to transferring to the Bar.

Emily read History at the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded a Senior Exhibition academic prize for her results in second year.

Emily was then one of six UK graduates to receive the prestigious Daiwa Scholarship from the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, a unique fully funded 19-month programme of language study and work placement in Tokyo, Japan. Whist in Japan, Emily volunteered at the human rights NGO, Human Rights Now where she edited a report on child labour.

At law school, Emily obtained Distinctions in both the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Accelerated Legal Practice Course. Whilst studying, Emily volunteered at the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit where she developed a particular interest in representing survivors of trafficking and labour exploitation.

As a trainee solicitor at Hogan Lovells, Emily gained a breadth of experience in employment, tax and employee share incentives, international arbitration, construction litigation, and commercial real estate, before qualifying into the employment team in 2016.

As an Associate in the employment team at Hogan Lovells, Emily gained invaluable experience working closely with in-house legal, HR, and senior witnesses litigating complex multi-day Employment Tribunal claims. Emily advised on all aspects of employment law – including TUPE, GDPR, employment status, restrictive covenants, highly sensitive investigations, disciplinaries and grievance processes, redundancies, contracts, policies, settlement agreements, corporate transactions, restructurings, and international projects. Emily also regularly drafted pleadings, witness statements, and applications, honing her drafting skills. Emily obtained her Higher Rights of Audience as a solicitor.

Publications

‘Testing the boundaries of discrimination’, Employment Law Journal, Nov 2018
‘The Year Ahead: What to expect in 2018’, Employment Law Journal, Dec 2017
‘TUPE: Pass the Parcel’, Employment Law Journal, Oct 2015

In her spare time, Emily enjoys cycling, hiking, and open water swimming.

Expertise

Employment & Discrimination

Emily represents claimants and respondents at all stages in proceedings including preliminary hearings, judicial mediations, final hearings, and costs hearings. Emily also advises on strategy and case management, and assists with drafting pleadings, witness statements, and applications.

Recent instructions include:

Junior Counsel to Simon Cheetham KC representing a claimant in a 15-day whistleblowing trial.
Counsel for a successful respondent in a 7-day whistleblowing trial.
Counsel for a successful respondent in a 2-day unfair dismissal trial followed by a successful costs hearing in which the respondent recovered costs from the date of its costs warning letter.
Counsel for a successful respondent in a 3-day unfair dismissal trial related to Covid-19.
Counsel for a successful respondent in a 2-day TUPE trial.
Instructed to draft a witness statement for a High Court injunction concerning employee theft of confidential information from a tech company.
Instructed as junior to Betsan Criddle KC to assist with drafting the management side case for an MHPS disciplinary hearing.
Instructed to draft Grounds of Resistance for a finance research firm to defend a claim of race discrimination, disability discrimination, and unfair dismissal. Emily was also instructed to represent the respondent at the subsequent preliminary hearing, after which the case settled.
Instructed to draft Grounds of Resistance for a manufacturing company to defend a claim of age discrimination and unfair dismissal. Emily is also instructed to represent the respondent at the subsequent open preliminary hearing on employment status.
Represented various claimants in Judicial Mediations concerning race discrimination and redundancy unfair dismissals.
Counsel for a successful respondent at an open preliminary hearing where a claim was struck out as an abuse of process and the respondent recovered its costs from the date of its costs warning letter.

Emily is keen to develop an appellate practice. Emily shadowed Tom Kirk in the Employment Appeal Tribunal case of Seccombe v Reed in Partnership Limited UKEAT/0217/20 concerning whether a mental impairment met the “long term” requirement of the definition of disability and the extent to which what a claimant says to others about their impairment can be taken into account in assessing disability.

Emily is also interested in investigations and has experience of high profile and highly sensitive investigations both from advising on and conducting investigations as a solicitor and from observing various senior members of chambers, including Simon Cheetham KC, Eleena Misra, Cyril Adjei, and Elizabeth Melville.