"Nadia is an excellent advocate and adviser. She is hard-working, gets to the heart of issues and is good with clients. She is my first choice for issues in the healthcare sector."
Chambers & Partners 2024
"Nadia is excellent. She provides direct and frank advice, and clients respect her no-nonsense approach."
The Legal 500 2024
“Nadia is extremely client-focused and a very strong tactician. She understands clients’ needs like no other counsel.”
Chambers & Partners 2023
"She is very good with clients and is an excellent advocate. She has a brilliant eye for detail and gives sensible advice."
Nadia Motraghi KC was called to the bar in 2004 and took silk in 2023. Her practice spans employment, professional discipline and public law. For more than a decade she has been ranked as one of the leading barristers in her areas of expertise in the legal directories.
Nadia is approachable, responsive and calm under pressure. She enjoys working in a team with solicitors and lay clients to resolve their legal issues effectively, commercially and sensitively, with a keen eye for reputational risk. Her cases have taken her from the tribunals and lower courts to the Supreme Court and to every level of tribunal and court in between.
In employment law, Nadia’s practice covers the entire spectrum of employment disputes acting for employers and employees.
Nadia has considerable expertise of whistleblowing and discrimination claims in the financial services, insurance and technology sectors and in the public sector, especially the NHS and education sectors. In the High Court, Nadia has a particular interest in injunctive relief and in all Maintaining High Professional Standards in the Modern NHS (MHPS) matters.
Nadia has extensive experience of equal pay claims in the public (local authority and NHS) and private sectors (banking) equal pay claims, whether brought as multiples or high value individual claims.
In regulatory law, Nadia has a broad professional discipline practice. She acts for individuals before their professional bodies and has a particular interest in the legal profession, financial services and healthcare sector. Nadia has particular insight in this area as a former member on the Bar Tribunal, determining cases of professional misconduct against barristers.
In public law, Nadia’s practice encompasses judicial reviews, especially in the fields of healthcare, professional regulation and employment-related matters as well as procurement disputes based on breaches of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) as well as TUPE matters. Nadia is a Visiting Lecturer in Public Procurement Law at the University of Nottingham for course convenor Professor Sue Arrowsmith. Nadia has published articles on public procurement and TUPE in The Public Procurement Law Review and has spoken at the global public procurement conference, Global Revolution VIII.
Nadia also has a niche commercial practice covering commercial disputes arising out of employment relationships and healthcare contracts such as General Dental Service Contracts.
Outside of court, Nadia has expertise in
representing parties at mediation, whether independent or judicial
conducting complex investigations as an independent investigator
representing parties before internal disciplinary and grievance panels
acting as an independent legal advisor to internal disciplinary and grievance panels
acting as a chair of internal disciplinary, grievance and other panels.
Education
Nadia read law at St John’s College, University of Oxford. At Oxford, she was a Lovells prize-winner.
Nadia was awarded a Frank Knox Fellowship at Harvard University. She graduated with an LLM from Harvard Law School and received the Dean’s Prize for Leadership. She also spent a year at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies where she studied Persian and Middle Eastern Studies, including Islamic Law.
Nadia studied for the Bar Vocation Course at the College of Law. Gray’s Inn awarded Nadia its pre-eminent scholarship and following Bar Finals, she received its Ede & Ravenscroft Student of the Year prize, for achieving the best marks in the country.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Nadia worked as a part-time lecturer and teaching fellow for several universities, including Harvard, where she received an award for excellence in teaching and as a Research Assistant for the Law Commission.
Current Memberships and other activities
Nadia is a is an Executive Committee member of the Employment Law Bar Association (ELBA) and a member of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA), Industrial Law Society (ILS) and the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL).
She regularly writes, commentates and lectures on topical legal subjects and has appeared on all the UK’s major new channels.
Professional Recommendations
“Nadia gets clients to understand difficult topics quickly, and she’s an excellent advocate.”
Chambers & Partners 2024
“Nadia is a fantastic barrister.”
Chambers & Partners 2024
“Nadia is an excellent advocate and adviser. She is hard-working, gets to the heart of issues and is good with clients. She is my first choice for issues in the healthcare sector.”
Chambers & Partners 2024
“Nadia is able to handle the most difficult of cases with skill and confidence. Her sensitive approach puts clients and witnesses at ease.”
Chambers & Partners 2024
“Nadia is a pleasure to work with. She is technically excellent, a brilliant advocate, and strategic and pragmatic in her approach.”
Chambers & Partners 2024
“Nadia is excellent. She provides direct and frank advice, and clients respect her no-nonsense approach.”
The Legal 500 2024
“An indefatigable silk who gets on exceptionally well with professional and lay clients.”
The Legal 500 2024
“We choose her for her rationality and ability to give advice concisely and accessibly. She keeps calm in the face of litigious opponents, which gives us a real advantage.”
Chambers & Partners 2023
“She is a tenacious and strong advocate and easily carries the confidence of the client.”
Chambers & Partners 2023
“Nadia is extremely client-focused and a very strong tactician. She understands clients’ needs like no other counsel.”
Chambers & Partners 2023
“Nadia is superb in what she does and has a strong regard for client care.”
Chambers & Partners 2023
“An incredibly impressive senior junior. In the public law field, she is particularly strong on discrimination issues and regulatory disputes, but has the legal brain to be a formidable opponent in all sorts of public law cases.”
The Legal 500 2023
“She is very good with clients and is an excellent advocate. She has a brilliant eye for detail and gives sensible advice.”
The Legal 500 2023
“A very capable senior junior who proves to be more than a match for her KC opponents.”
The Legal 500 2023
“She has a superb intellect and is very conscientious.” “Incredibly strong academically, and with a very impressive eye for detail in document heavy public law challenges. Her knowledge of discrimination law from her employment practice makes her a go-to senior junior in public law discrimination cases.” “Nadia is extremely knowledgeable and practical with her management of legal issues. She is diligent, approachable, and readily gets herself involved with matters as an integral part of the team.” “As well as being technically excellent and knowledgeable, both in written work and as an advocate, she is pragmatic and puts her witnesses at ease and forensically cross-examining the other side’s.”
The Legal 500 2022
“She is incredibly approachable so you can sense-check and pick up the phone to her. She has really good attention to detail, she gets to the nub of what the issues are and she understands the NHS environment.” “She makes fantastic submissions and she is very engaging.” “She is very good at providing day-to-day support.”
Chambers & Partners 2022
“She has a wonderful combination of a superb intellect and being really nice to deal with.” “She’s a standout advocate.” “A strong advocate who clients can rely on.”
Chambers & Partners 2021
“She has an incredible legal mind but can also be devastating in cross examination. Very good for strategy and has excellent client-handling skills.”
The Legal 500 2021
“Incisive and focused on client needs. Very organised and reliable and an excellent advocate.” “An excellent strategist who offers innovative and workable approaches to complex issues.” “She did a sterling job and is clearly very experienced.”
Chambers & Partners 2020
“Instructed on NHS matters.” “Always one step ahead, and great with clients as well as lovely to deal with and very fast turnaround.” “Very experienced in representing healthcare professionals before their regulators. “
The Legal 500 2020
“She knows her subject inside out and has an extremely good manner with clients.”
Chambers & Partners 2019
“A first-class advocate.”
The Legal 500 2018
“She is a fearsome cross-examiner who takes no prisoners.”
The Legal 500 2017
Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500 directories describe Nadia as an “exceptionally skilled advocate who acts for both employers and senior executives. She also has significant experience representing governmental institutions and NHS organisations. Clients praise her dedication to cases and note her thoroughness and detailed approach. She has extensive experience of holiday pay claims and contractual disputes”. “She has a great combination of intellect, attention to detail and persistence, with a practical and focused approach – she is a pleasure to deal with” . “Phenomenally bright and keen”, “excellent on her feet”; “very practical and a great tactician”; “delves right to the heart of a matter”, “incredibly tenacious in negotiations and on her feet”, “impresses clients with her commercial approach” and has an “excellent manner with clients”. Nadia is known for her “standout litigation work” and is described as a “trusted adviser on non-contentious matters”.
Expertise
Employment & Discrimination
Nadia is a specialist in employment and discrimination law with considerable experience of the full range of litigation within this field. Prior to taking silk in 2023, Nadia was ranked in Band 1 in the legal directories for her employment expertise.
Nadia has an extensive practice, undertaking advocacy and advisory work for employees and employers.
Her experience ranges from the Employment Tribunal and High Court to the Supreme Court.
A significant part of Nadia’s tribunal practice consists of factually and legally complex lengthy discrimination cases (particularly those involving claims of multi-stranded discrimination); whistleblowing and claims concerning trade union activities, with or without unfair dismissal claims.
Nadia has extensive experience of equal pay claims, in the public and private sector, including being instructed as sole counsel (as a junior) in a number of mass equal pay claims against local authorities and NHS Trusts, usually against silks. Her private sector experience has typically involved high value individual claims. She has acted in cases involving like work, work rated as equivalent and work of equal value.
Many of Nadia’s cases are unusual, involving politically sensitive issues where the implications go beyond the confines of the legal case or test cases where strategy is particularly important.
In the private sector, Nadia has particular experience of claims from a wide variety of sectors including: banking, asset management, inter dealer broker and other “City” claims; telecommunications and technology and well-known retailers.
In the public sector, Nadia has expertise in acting for and against NHS Trusts, local authorities, central government, universities, private schools and for politicians, including Members of Parliament (MPs).
Nadia’s High Court practice spans the full range of contractual claims as well as injunctive work, including in the context of industrial action and injunctions arising out of the contract of employment, especially under Maintaining High Professional Standards in the Modern NHS (MHPS) in respect of doctors and dentists in the NHS.
Outside of court, Nadia has expertise in
representing parties at mediation, whether independent or judicial.
conducting complex investigations as an independent investigator
representing parties before internal disciplinary and grievance panels
acting as an independent legal advisor to internal disciplinary and grievance panels
acting as a chair of internal disciplinary, grievance and other panels.
Professional Regulatory & Discipline
Nadia’s experience in this field covers a wide spectrum from advising and representing practitioners:
Before their professional bodies
In NHS Performers List matters
In appeals and judicial reviews
Nadia is also instructed in judicial reviews relating to changes in the NHS.
Healthcare Professional Discipline
Nadia’s experience of professional disciplinary cases before healthcare regulatory bodies includes cases before the General Medical Council (GMC), General Dental Council (GDC), General Optical Council (GOC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and Health and Care Professional Council (HCPC).
She has represented individuals in fitness to practise hearings at all stages and in interim orders hearings as well as challenging referrals to fitness to practise hearings. For example, Nadia was instructed as junior counsel in what is thought to be the longest case brought against an individual doctor (GMC v Sondhi, heard over 13 weeks in 2013-2014.)
Nadia has particular expertise in statutory appeals before the High Court of determinations of regulatory bodies and also of judicial reviews arising from decisions of regulatory bodies. (CHRE v. NMC & Paula Grant [2011] EWHC 927 (Admin), Uddin v GMC, Kapadia v GMC).
Nadia has also appeared on behalf of practitioners and advised in Performers List cases, at the First Tier Tribunal and before PLDPs.
In addition to advising and representing individuals, Nadia also advises organisations and professional associations on professional discipline issues which concern them, whether advising on responses to public consultations, assisting in providing guidance to members/ employees and strategic matters.
She has expertise in advising on professional disciplinary issues related to COVID-19.
Judicial Review
Nadia represented the applicant nurses in a successful judicial review of the longest case in NMC history, R (Johnson and Maggs) v. NMC [2013] EWHC 2140 (Admin) led by Mary O’Rourke KC.
Nadia is presently instructed by the Claimants in a judicial review challenging a decision to close a hospital unit.
NHS Performers List
Nadia’s experience includes advice and representation in NHS Performers List cases and other matters.
Nadia advises on refusals of application for inclusion on the Performers List, NHS England investigations, the imposition of conditions or suspensions. She also represents practitioners at Performers List hearings and appeals to the First-Tier Tribunal.
Multi-jurisdiction cases
Nadia’s expertise in employment law and in-depth knowledge of the NHS has proven valuable to her regulatory practice as she is able to effectively advise clients on proceedings across a number of jurisdictions including: internal proceedings, the Employment Tribunal, High Court and other appellate bodies and before regulatory bodies.
Outside the healthcare context, Nadia has represented individuals in internal disciplinary proceedings, including teachers and accountants. She has also represented an accountant in regulatory proceedings.
Commercial Law
Nadia also has a diverse commercial practice mainly concerning commercial disputes arising out of employment relationships or healthcare contracts. On the employment side, Nadia advises and represents clients in matters from restrictive covenant cases, bonus claims, board-level contract terminations, high value redundancy cases, and negligent reference claims.
In healthcare, Nadia advises individuals and corporates with commercial contracts such as General Dental Service Contracts. She also has a particular interest in procurement law.
Nadia accepts instructions in the field of public procurement including disputes based on the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR). She also undertakes advisory work particularly on horizontal policies and the effect of TUPE in procurement exercise. Nadia is a Visiting Lecturer in Public Procurement Law at the University of Nottingham for course convenor Professor Sue Arrowsmith.
Nadia provides training on public procurement ranging from regulation of awards procedures, framework agreement and call offs, to dealing with automatic suspensions and other challenges brought under the PCR, to the effect of Brexit on public procurement.
Most recently Nadia has published an article with Ijeoma Omambala KCof Old Square Chambers in the Public Procurement Law Review (Winter 2016) on the implications of Brexit for Public Procurement and TUPE.
Nadia and Ijeoma spoke at the global public procurement conference, Global Revolution VIII, in June 2017.
HR Professional Support
Nadia is recognised as a leading employment barrister in Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500. She has particular expertise in cases involving discrimination, harassment and victimisation, whistleblowing and dishonesty / breach of trust.
Nadia acts as legal adviser or panellist for internal grievance and disciplinary panels. She also presents the management case to internal disciplinary panels and appeal panels. She sits as a member of the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal hearing cases of professional misconduct against barristers and is a member of the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors, an appeal panel advising the Secretary of State for Defence.
Nadia undertakes and advises on investigations and is an experienced trainer on equality and diversity. She has spoken widely including at Oxford University, the Home Office Network, the Institute of Directors and the Bar Council. Nadia is able to accept Public Access instructions.
Recent and current work
Relevant Work
The Pitchford Inquiry: Undercover Police Inquiry
R (Cummings & Or) v Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Ogunsola v Nursing and Midwifery Council
Advice as part of National Consultation on proposed changes to General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practise Rules
