Naomi Cunningham > Chambers of James Counsell KC and Keith Bryant KC > London, England > Barrister Profile
Outer Temple Chambers Offices
Outer Temple Chambers
THE OUTER TEMPLE, 222 STRAND
LONDON
WC2R 1BA
England
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Naomi Cunningham
Work Department
Employment and Discrimination
Position
Barrister specialising in employment & discrimination.
Career
Year of call ; 1994.
Naomi Cunningham has specialised in employment and discrimination law throughout her career, accepting instructions in goods and services discrimination as well as in the full range of employment matters.
In recent years, Naomi has developed a particular interest in gender reassignment discrimination, the interaction between the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act, the single-sex exceptions in the Equality Act and public sector equality duty. She gave evidence to the Women and Equalities Select Committee on reform of the GRA in February 2021, and to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament in June 2022. Her public law work in the area includes Fair Play For Women’s judicial review of ONS guidance on the sex question in the 2021 Census, the challenge to the lawfulness of the EHRC’s Code of Practice in AEA v EHRC, and FOIA appeals involving information held by the Judicial College and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Current instructions include a challenge to the Brighton Survivors’ Network’s refusal to provide single-sex group counselling, and a claim against a university for discrimination on grounds of “gender-critical” belief.
Naomi has written a popular and practical guide to employment tribunal proceedings, Employment Tribunal Claims: tactics and precedents, now in its 4th edition (2nd-4th editions co-authored by Michael Reed). A review in the ELA Briefing said “Every employment lawyer (including the tribunal judiciary) will learn something of value from reading this book.”
Naomi blogs regularly on the law at www.legalfeminist.org.uk and is chair of the third sector human rights organisation Sex Matters. She was named by The Lawyer as one of their “Hot 100” for 2022.
Memberships
- Employment Law Bar Association
- Employment Lawyers’ Association
- Discrimination Law Association
- Trustee of the Anti-Trafficking & Labour Exploitation Unit
Education
Charlton Park School; Reading University; Bristol University.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Employment
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 2Naomi Cunningham – Outer Temple Chambers ‘Naomi is technically very strong and an absolute expert on discrimination and equal pay cases.’
Outer Temple Chambers ‘has an excellent offering in employment matters‘. Equal pay litigation remains a core pillar of strength for the team, and members continue to handle high-profile discrimination and whistleblowing claims. Pensions work is another key area of expertise for multiple practitioners in the group. Recent highlights include Andrew Short KC and Saul Margo successfully acting in the Court of Appeal for the claimants in Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd v Clark and Others, a long-running equal pay claim which in 2023 reached the Court of Appeal on a point concerning ACAS conciliation in bulk claims. Naomi Cunningham is ‘a master in discrimination cases‘, and Lydia Seymour is sought after for her excellent track record in advising on employment issues that cross over with pensions matters.