Employment and Discrimination; Education; Public and Regulatory; Commercial.
Naomi is a specialist employment, education and discrimination law barrister, with a busy court-based and advisory practice. She is a member of the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel (London) and is ranked as a leading junior in Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500.
Naomi is based in 3PB's Oxford centre.
Before coming to the Bar, Naomi worked as a Judicial Assistant in the Court of Appeal, and as a teaching fellow and research assistant at University College London and the University of Oxford.
Employment and discrimination
Naomi has a thriving employment practice, acting for claimants and respondents/defendants in the Employment Tribunal, EAT, County Court and High Court. She is ranked as a Band 2 Leading Junior in the Legal 500 and Chambers UK directories for Employment law, and is described as ‘commercial and pragmatic’, ‘knowledgeable and experienced’ and ‘friendly and responsive’.
Recent experience includes:
Representing and advising employers responding to religious and philosophical belief discrimination claims, including successfully defending a claim of antisemitic discrimination at a six-day trial
Representing and advising employees and employers in complex claims for historic holiday pay, in particular arising out of Smith v Pimlico Plumbers (including strategic advice to large employers)
Representing and advising employees and employers on worker status matters
Successfully arguing that an individual with a number of health conditions did not have a disability under the Equality Act 2010
Successfully obtaining permission to appeal at a Rule 3(10) hearing in the EAT
Advising and drafting a consent order in the EAT on a technical procedural matter
Acting for a large employer in an ongoing equal pay claim
Acting as specialist junior counsel in a commercial dispute, providing employment law advice for a complex multi-million-pound claim in the High Court, arising out of a share-purchase agreement
Appearing as junior counsel in the Supreme Court in Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022] UKSC 21 (appeal concerning holiday pay for part-year workers, led by Mathew Gullick KC)
Representing employees and employers in numerous unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal and redundancy final hearings (often combined with discrimination or whistleblowing claims)
Regular appearance in the ET at preliminary hearings, including successful applications for strike out or deposit orders in order to manage cases effectively at a preliminary stage
Successfully defending interim relief applications.
Overlapping with her education law practice, Naomi has particular expertise of employment disputes in the education sector, including:
Representing peripatetic music teachers in complex holiday pay claims (including Harpur Trust v Brazel (see above))
Advising a university on whether a former employee held a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010
Achieving settlement for a school in a highly sensitive unfair dismissal and sex discrimination claim
Successfully applying for a deposit order on behalf of a school in relation to weak discrimination claims.
Outside of the employment sphere, Naomi also accepts instructions in other areas of equality law, and has advised and acted in county court discrimination claims brought against exam providers, transport companies, supermarkets, and government departments.
Naomi has experience of group litigation, representing one of 45 Respondents in a claim relating to discrimination in recruitment, and one of 25 Respondents in a claim brought by 127 Claimants in relation to the ‘no jab no job’ policy for care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Naomi’s background in university teaching means she is willing and able to provide training in a range of areas of employment law.
Prior to pupillage, Naomi worked as a judicial assistant in the Court of Appeal, where she worked on a number of ground-breaking employment cases, in areas including National Minimum Wage, whistleblowing, territorial jurisdiction, variation of contract and harassment.
Education Law
Naomi has a busy education practice, across a range of areas of law and a variety of jurisdictions. She is ranked in the Legal 500 as a Leading Junior for Education law. She regularly acts for and advises parents, students, schools, universities and local authorities. Her experience includes:
Higher education:
Drafting pleadings and advising on claims of discrimination, breach of human rights, negligence, and breach of contract in the County Court
Appearing in interim application hearings in the County Court (including an interim injunction)
Advising a university on a series of ongoing consumer rights claims brought by students (led by Michael Tomlinson KC)
Representing a university at a trial on claims of breach of contract and breach of human rights (settled at door of court).
Schools and FE colleges:
Drafting pleadings and advising on claims of discrimination against schools and further education colleges in the County Court (including race, religious and transgender discrimination)
Acting for parents and schools in disability discrimination final hearings in the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal.
Independent schools: Drafting pleadings and advising on breach of contract claims for and against independent schools.
Local authorities:
Advising local authorities on policy decisions in relation to school admissions
Clerking school admissions panels and independent review panels (school exclusions)
Providing training on school admissions and exclusions law.
Naomi also has extensive experience of employment law claims in the education sector, including:
Representing peripatetic music teachers in complex holiday pay claims (including as junior counsel in the Supreme Court in Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022] UKSC 21 (led by Mathew Gullick KC))
Advising a university on whether a former employee held a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010
Achieving settlement for a school in a highly sensitive unfair dismissal and sex discrimination claim
Successfully applying for a deposit order on behalf of a school in relation to weak discrimination claims.
Prior to pupillage, Naomi worked as a research assistant at the University of Oxford, examining the effect of the 2012 changes to the law of school exclusions.
Naomi has a particular interest in religion and education and wrote her masters’ dissertation on whether children have a right to a secular education.
Publications
Lucinda Ferguson and Naomi Webber, School Exclusion and the Law: A Literature Review and Scoping Survey of Practice (Department of Education, University of Oxford, January 2015).
Administrative and Public Law
Naomi is a member of the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel (London). She has assisted in disclosure exercises for high profile and complex judicial review claims, and appeared as junior counsel in OA (Somalia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] UKUT 00033 (IAC) (country guidance case) (led by William Hansen). She also spent a year as junior junior counsel to the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
Overlapping with her other areas of practice, Naomi has a particular interest in public law in the education context and in discrimination claims in the public sector.
As a judicial assistant at the Court of Appeal, Naomi worked on a range of public law matters including immigration, asylum, human rights, school transport and the public sector equality duty.
Commercial
Overlapping with her employment practice, Naomi advises Claimants and Defendants on breach of contract claims in the employment context, including for unpaid bonuses, salary overpayments and overtime. She previously acted as specialist junior counsel in a commercial dispute, providing employment law advice for a complex multi-million pound claim arising out of a share-purchase agreement.
As part of her education law practice, Naomi has advised on contractual claims in relation to independent schools and out of school clubs, and acted for and against universities in breach of contract and discrimination claims. She is currently instructed for a university, advising on ongoing consumer rights claims brought by students (led by Michael Tomlinson KC).
Naomi has also acted in a wide range of contractual matters in the County Court. She has advised and appeared for small businesses and individuals in claims including unpaid invoices, disputes over quality of work, consumer credit and costs.
Year of call 2017
Attorney General C Panel
Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)
Education Law Association (ELAS)
Employment Lawyers Association (ELA)
Employment Law Bar Association (ELBA)
Industrial Law Society (ILS)
Bar Professional Training Course, City Law School, 2016-17
LLM in Law, University College London, 2015-16
BA Jurisprudence (Law), Worcester College, University of Oxford, 2011-2014