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Sophie Garner

Sophie Garner

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St Philips Chambers

St Philips Chambers

England - Regional Bar • Midland Circuit

1

Employment

St Philips Chambers is widely praised as ‘a strong chambers with good availability at both senior and junior levels’ in respect of employment law specialists. The team, led by Edmund Beever, has considerable combined experience representing large private employers, private individuals, and public sectors clients like NHS trusts and local authorities. Beever’s recent highlights include his representation of Nottinghamshire County Council in connection with a claim for religious discrimination by a Christian teacher dismissed for accessing a gender-questioning child's safeguarding report. Sophie Garner, ‘an excellent lawyer with a very personable and positive approach’, has a strong track record handling discrimination and whistleblowing cases. Anthony Johnston is known for his ‘sharp and methodical’ advocacy style. He recently acted for the respondent in Pipe v Coventry University Higher Education in relation to a claim of age and disability discrimination brought by an individual with ADHD and insomnia, a former BBC journalist teaching at the university but without a PhD, who alleged that the university’s framework for academic progression unlawfully discriminated against neurodivergent and/or older applicants.
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Phone
0121 246 7015
Email
[email protected]
Profile
st-philips.com

Profile

Work Department
Employment
Position

Sophie is an experienced specialist in employment and discrimination law whose caseload encompasses the full range of employment and discrimination disputes in the Employment Tribunal, EAT and County or High Court. Her personable manner and tenacity in ‘against the odds’ cases are characteristics that are often commented upon favourably by lay and professional clients. She particularly enjoys claims involving novel points of discrimination law. As well as currently being a specialist employment/discrimination practitioner, Sophie also has commercial and property experience. She lectures regularly both in-house and externally on employment and discrimination law and was called to give evidence on behalf of the Discrimination Law Association in November 2012 to the select committee on Women in the Workplace. Through her extensive experience of voluntary work as a charity trustee/director, Sophie has gained a wide knowledge and understanding of corporate and organisational operations and qualified as a company secretary (ACIS) in 2002. She was nominated as one of the Attorney General’s ’Pro-Bono Heroes’ for 2009.

Career

Called 1990, Middle Temple. Accredited commercial mediator CEDR, 2000; ADR Group, 2009; accredited workplace mediator, globis, 2011. Patron of the ‘Amicus’ Charity since 2012; Member of Attorney General’s ’A’ Panel of Counsel – 2020

Memberships
Discrimination Law Association Employment Lawyers Association Employment Law Bar Association Voluntary Appointments and Roles Co-founder and Patron – Amicus (The legal human rights charity). Trustee – MWNUK, and Create Partnership Trust (MAT) Chair – Bar Council Retention Panel Committee Member – Bar Council EDRSM Committee Vice-Chair – Midland Circuit Women’s Forum
Education

1989 LLB (Hons); 2002 ACIS.

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