Tom Gillie

Tom is a leading, expert barrister in equality and employment law, election law, and the law of education. He is a member of both the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s and the Attorney General’s panels of preferred counsel and has been shortlisted as Legal 500’s Junior of the Year.

Election law and the law of politics

Tom wrote the practitioner text on the law of political parties, Organised Politics, Law and Practice (published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2024), and has acted in all the most high-profile cases in this area. He was the Labour Party’s counsel of choice for the 2024 General Election. He has advised the Electoral Commission, the Liberal Democrats, other political parties and NGOs. Tom acted in all Parliamentary election petitions to arise in the last electoral cycle and regularly advises on Parliamentary and local government standards and ethics.

Equality law

Tom has acted and advised in the most complex equality law cases from the Supreme Court to the Employment Tribunal. He has significant experience in race discrimination cases and, as well as appearing in the appellate courts, acted in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, and investigations into Islamophobia in local government. Tom has a particular focus in protected belief claims; he has recently acted in noteworthy litigation arising from beliefs about the Israel-Palestine conflict and gender critical beliefs. Tom also has a significant disability law practice and regularly appears in complex, high value litigation concerning reasonable adjustments claims and disability discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Employment law

Tom is ranked as a Leading Junior in employment law by the Legal 500. His practice spans all areas of labour law and industrial relations, including High Court litigation and group actions. In 2025 Tom acted in several large group equal pay claims against local authorities, the Uber group litigation, represented large trade unions in complex litigation about pension and pay entitlements and represented white-collar workers in High Court litigation arising from restrictive covenants and bonuses. He frequently appears in the Employment Appeal Tribunal as well as the employment tribunal. Tom has particular expertise undertaking sensitive investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and whistleblowing, including in respect of CEOs of global companies and high-profile politicians.

Education law

Tom has a Claimant only education practice representing young people with special educational needs (SEN) and their parents. He has a particular interest in SEN in a military context and has developed the law in this area, including representing the parents in the landmark case of Hampshire County Council v GC [2024] UKUT 128 (AAC) in the Upper Tribunal, which expanded the rights of children with SEN, and is instructed to represent the parents before the Court of Appeal in December 2025. Tom acts in cases in the SEND Tribunal and the Administrative Division of the High Court.

Called: 2013

• Industrial Law Society
• ELA
• PIBA
• Franco-British Lawyers Society
• HOME: The Tenants Foundation (Chair)
• Bar Human Rights Committee

• Bar On Straight Civil Partnerships is Lawful
• Settling Injury to Feelings: A Taxing Time
• Race Discrimination and Housing in Post Brexit Britain
• Housing, Race and the Right to Rent post Brexit
• Can Judicial Assessment help Claimants and Respondents in the Employment Tribunal?
• Bakers lose ‘Gay Cake’ case
• ‘2017: the year of the discount rate: a claimant’s perspective’ (co-author with Martyn McLeish), Journal of Personal Injury Law, (2017) No.2 Pages 109-117
• A guide to using statistics in equality and employment litigation