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Nicola Newbegin

Call: 2008

"Phenomenal: a really exceptional practitioner whose skills are far beyond her years. Excellent at handling complex legal issues."

Chambers & Partners 2024

"Nicola is extremely knowledgeable and insightful, and provides astute advice on the technical elements of complex cases. Her advocacy is always precise and persuasive."

The Legal 500 2024

"Incredibly hardworking and very knowledgeable on all types of employment law matters, particularly working time and maternity rights. An assertive advocate, who is very thorough in cross-examination and excellent with clients in conference."

The Legal 500 2023

"She has an amazing ability to get on top of often large quantities of material at short notice."

Chambers & Partners 2023

Overview

Nicola specialises in employment, discrimination and professional discipline, as well as undertaking related work in the fields of judicial review, human rights and data protection/privacy.

Nicola has for many years been recognised as a leading individual in both employment and professional discipline by both Chambers & Partners and Legal 500.  Commentary in those directories has included:

“She has an amazing ability to get on top of often large quantities of material at short notice.”

“Nicola is fantastic on discrimination and maternity law.”

“Very high technical skills for technical cases and very good client relation skills.’

“Incredibly hardworking and very knowledgeable on all types of employment law matters, particularly working time and maternity rights. An assertive advocate, who is very thorough in cross-examination and excellent with clients in conference.

In 2023 Nicola won the Legal 500 Award for Professional Disciplinary and Regulatory Junior of the year.

In 2018 Nicola won the ELBA Appellate Advocacy Cup.

Nicola appears regularly in the Employment Tribunals, the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the County Courts, the High Court and the Court of Appeal, as well as before the major professional regulators.

Nicola has particular expertise in:

  • High Court breach of contract claims relating to doctors and dentists (eg Corbert v Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Smo v Hywel Dda University Health Board, Jain v Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, McMillan v Airedale (CA), Powys v Dusza & Sobhani (CA), Mattu v. Coventry and Warwickshire (CA), Chakrabarty v Ipswich, Dr A v. HTX, R (Puri) v. Bradford; Lim v. Wolverhampton, X v. Surrey and Sussex)
  • Appeals from healthcare regulators (eg Sastry v GMC, GMC v Chandra, Brookman v GMC)
  • Discrimination (eg Anderson v Turning Point Eespro, Gutfreund-Walmsley v Big Lottery Fund Ltd, Carneiro v Chelsea Football Club and Mourinho)
  • Holiday pay (Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland v Agnew)
  • Appeals relating to tribunal practice and procedure (eg Tarn v Hughes (EAT), Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy v Parry (CA))
  • TUPE (eg Boxall v. Innserve, Vaseer v Secretary of State & Ors)
  • Collective unlawful deductions from wages / enhanced redundancy payment claims (eg CSC v McAlinden (CA), Peacocks v Peregrine (EAT))
  • Collective Redundancy Claims (eg TSSA v. Network Rail)
  • Whistleblowing (eg  Connolly v Health Education England, Bull v Namvar, Monro v Barts Health NHS Trust, Dr Prasad v Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust)
  • Unfair dismissal (eg Orphanou v. London Development Agency, Newcastle v Khan (EAT)

In May 2021, Nicola published (jointly with Robin White of Old Square Chambers) ‘A Practical Guide to Transgender Law’ available to purchase here.

Previous Legal Experience
Prior to transferring to the Bar, Nicola trained as a solicitor at Linklaters qualifying into the tax department in January 2003 where she spent five years as a specialist tax litigator. Nicola was involved in bringing cases in both the Tax Tribunals and the High Court. Nicola obtained Higher Rights of Audience as a Solicitor-Advocate. Nicola has also undertaken voluntary work at two law centres as well as for FRU.

Education
Nicola read Law at Keble College, Oxford. During her time there she won the Keble College Mooting Competition, was runner-up in the Oxford University Law Society Mooting Competition and won the Oxford v Lincoln’s Inn Moot.

Professional Memberships
ILS; ELBA; ELA; ARDL; ALBA

Directory Rankings
Nicola is ranked as a leading individual in both Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500 for both employment law and professional discipline and regulatory law.

She was named Legal 500’s Professional Disciplinary and Regulatory Junior of the Year 2023.

Professional Recommendations

 

“Phenomenal: a really exceptional practitioner whose skills are far beyond her years. Excellent at handling complex legal issues.”

Chambers & Partners 2024

“Thorough preparation, very responsive, excellent client-handling skills and a very able advocate.”

Chambers & Partners 2024

“A highly skilled junior.”

Chambers & Partners 2024

“Nicola gets to the nub of the issue quickly.”

Chambers & Partners 2024

“Nicola is a fantastic advocate, persuasive and skilful with a very good eye for detail. She is also very personable, and witnesses find her guidance supportive and reassuring.”

Chambers & Partners 2024

“She is a leading expert and handles complex and at times controversial topics very well in questioning. It is so valuable to have her insights and support.”

Chambers & Partners 2024

“An excellent advocate, who delivers her points with accuracy and clarity. She really fights for her client.”

The Legal 500 2024

“Nicola is extremely knowledgeable and insightful, and provides astute advice on the technical elements of complex cases. Her advocacy is always precise and persuasive.”

The Legal 500 2024

“Nicola is fantastic on discrimination and maternity law.”

Chambers & Partners 2023

“She has an amazing ability to get on top of often large quantities of material at short notice.”

Chambers & Partners 2023

“Very high technical skills for technical cases and very good client relation skills.”

The Legal 500 2023

“Incredibly hardworking and very knowledgeable on all types of employment law matters, particularly working time and maternity rights. An assertive advocate, who is very thorough in cross-examination and excellent with clients in conference.”

The Legal 500 2023

“She has a sharp mind and an encyclopaedic knowledge of GMC matters.” “Nicola provides excellent, pragmatic advice, and is precise and effective in cross-examination. Nicola takes a client-centred approach and ensures that clients feel supported throughout. This is especially important in complex, rapidly-developing cases.”

The Legal 500 2022

“Nicola Newbegin has been a pleasure to work with. She is bright, hard-working and reliable. She is excellent with clients and provides timely, clear advices.” “She is always well prepared, very responsive and easy to work with.” “She’s very reliable if you have urgent work. She always meets the deadline.” “Nicola Newbegin is really bright, she leaves no stone unturned and she is really easy to work with.” “She is a razor-sharp barrister, she is very well prepared, she is thoughtful and she is incisive.”

Chambers & Partners 2022

“She is absolutely excellent – very bright, hard-working and charming. She inspires a lot of confidence in clients.” “Her healthcare background allows her to bring new approaches to old questions. She is fantastic with clients and really good at building a rapport with them and earning their trust.” “She is incredibly tenacious and presents things in a way which is very persuasive; she does a really outstanding job and will fight to the end for her client.” “She’s well prepared, excellent for NHS matters and user-friendly.”

Chambers & Partners 2021

“Excellent at presenting her client’s case in court. She is tenacious, persuasive and leaves no stone unturned.” “Nicola is incredibly knowledgeable in this particular area of work. She is a very safe pair of hands and no issue is too large for her to deal with. Cases are a real team effort. Her knowledge knows no bounds and she is a perfect choice of counsel to help steer clients through tricky procedural issues.”

The Legal 500 2021

“She offers superior intellectual ability and attention to detail. She’s lovely to work with and good on her feet.” “Able to think outside the box, as well as having good technical skills and attention to detail.”

Chambers & Partners 2020

“Exceptionally bright barrister, who is forensic in reviewing and understanding the matter at hand.” “She has astute technical skills and a meticulous eye for detail. “

The Legal 500 2020

“She’s one to watch, an extremely hard-working and very bright practitioner.”

Chambers & Partners 2017

“Her tremendous tactical insight really impresses clients.”

The Legal 500 2017

“She is thorough, and her legal knowledge is spot-on.” “She’s very good in a crisis.”

Chambers & Partners 2016

Expertise

Employment & Discrimination

Professional Regulatory & Discipline

Inquests

Administrative & Public Law

Civil Liberties and Human Rights

Data Protection & Information Law


Recent and current work

Key contacts

Samantha Jones

Deputy Senior Clerk
Samantha Jones Telephone Clerk020 7269 0307 Email Clerk

Jordan Bater

Team Leader Assistant
Jordan Bater Telephone Clerk020 7269 0300 Email Clerk
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Shortlist Updated

Out of hours

William Meade (Senior Clerk)

07970 649 755