Naomi Webber > Chambers of David Berkley KC > Oxford, England > Barrister Profile

Naomi Webber

01865 793 736 naomi.webber@3pb.co.uk View profile View profile

Work Department

Employment and Discrimination; Education; Public and Regulatory; Commercial.

Position

Naomi Webber joined 3PB following the successful completion of her pupillage in October 2019. She is based in the Oxford centre.

Naomi accepts instructions in all areas of civil law, with a particular interest in employment, education and public law.

Prior to commencing pupillage, 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.

Outside of law, Naomi enjoys running, cycling and baking.

Employment and Discrimination

Naomi Webber has a busy employment practice, acting for claimants and respondents in preliminary hearings, multi-day final hearings, and judicial mediation, both in person and via CVP. She also regularly drafts pleadings and provides written advice.

Her practice covers a wide range of employment law. She has advised and acted in claims involving:

• Unfair dismissal (including automatic unfair dismissal and constructive unfair dismissal)
• All forms of discrimination (direct and indirect discrimination, failure to make reasonable adjustments, and harassment)
• Whistleblowing
• Equal pay
• Unlawful deduction from wages
• Holiday pay
• Worker status
• Redundancy
• National Minimum Wage
• Breach of contract (in the Employment Tribunal and County Court)

She recently acted as second junior counsel for the Respondent in Harpur Trust v Brazel (appeal to the Supreme Court, concerning holiday pay for part-year workers).

Naomi’s background in university teaching means she is willing and able to provide training in a range of areas of employment law. She regularly presents case law updates and contributes to the 3PB Employment and Discrimination newsletter.

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, and harassment.

Education Law

Naomi Webber has a growing education practice. She regularly advises and acts for parents, local authorities and schools. Her experience includes:

• Regularly appearing in the First-tier Tribunal for parents and local authorities in EHCP appeals, including refusal to issue EHC plans and appeals of sections B, F and I.
• Acting for parents and schools in disability discrimination claims in the First-tier Tribunal
• Clerking school admissions panels and independent review panels (school exclusions)
• Advising on breach of contract claims against independent schools
• Acting for students and universities in discrimination and breach of contract claims in the County Court

She also regularly provides training to local authorities on admissions, exclusions and EHCP appeals.

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 Webber accepts instructions through the Government Legal Department junior junior scheme. She has assisted in disclosure exercises for high profile and complex judicial review claims and recently acted as junior counsel in a country guidance case in the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber). She is currently acting as junior junior counsel to the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

She has a particular interest in public law in the education context.

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 

Naomi Webber acts in a wide range of contractual matters in the County Court. To date she has advised and appeared for small businesses and individuals in matters including unpaid invoices, disputes over quality of work, consumer credit and costs.

Overlapping with her employment practice, she regularly advises Claimants and Defendants on breach of contract claims in the employment context.

As part of her education law practice, Naomi also has a particular interest in contractual matters in the school and university settings. She 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.

Career

Year of call 2017

Memberships

• Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)
• Education Law Association (ELAS)
• Employment Lawyers Association (ELA)
• Employment Law Bar Association (ELBA)
• Industrial Law Society (ILS)

Education

• 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
• Inner Temple Exhibition Award, 2016