Allison Bailey vs Stonewall and Garden Court Chambers - The Decision

The complete decision plus press releases, hot takes, press coverage, analysis.

The Result

The Central London employment tribunal found that Allison Bailey, a black lesbian barrister was discriminated against by senior colleagues from Garden Court Chambers over gender-critical comments she made on social media. Allison Bailey was victimised when Garden Court Chambers published a statement that she was under investigation after it received a complaint from Stonewall, the UK’s most prominent LGBT charity. The Employment Tribunal also found that the claim that Stonewall had instructed, induced or caused, or attempted to induce or cause detriment to the claimant was not successful.

Tribunal Tweet coverage of the case is found here.

The complete judgement (117 pages) can be found here - Bailey Judgement.

Unusually, the Employment Tribunal also published a summary for the press - ET Press Release.

Relevant paragraphs from the summary describing the successful aspects of the claim and the damages award:

'“The tribunal held that her gender critical belief that Stonewall wanted to replace sex with gender identity, that the absolutist tone of its advocacy of gender self identity made them complicit in threats against women, and that it eroded women’s rights and lesbian same-sex orientation, was a belief protected under the Equality Act. The tribunal did not have to decide whether that belief was correct. The tribunal upheld her claim that Garden Court discriminated against her because of her belief, when they tweeted that the complaints would be investigated under a complaints procedure, and when they found in December 2019 that two of her tweets were likely to breach barristers’ core duties. She was awarded £22,000 compensation for injury to feelings in this.”

Commentary from the claimant & her legal team

Allison Bailey published a 7 tweet thread, archived here.

Tweet thread from Allison Bailey

Tweets 5 - 7 from that thread.

Allison Bailey’s press release - here.

The legal team; Peter Daly of Doyle Clayton did not make a separate statement or press release. However, he has written an analysis of the Forstater case that readers might find relevant.

Ben Cooper, QC of Old Square Chambers did not comment. And the announcement by Old Square Chambers was laconic and is reproduced in its entirety below.

Commentary from the respondents

Garden Court Chambers issued this press release. They did not tweet the press release from their official Twitter account nor publish it on Linked In. Many other interested parties sought out and tweeted the press release; some with less than complementary commentary.

Stonewall issued a press release as well. You can find it here. They did tweet it as well. Twitter, as one might predict, had some strong reaction, pro and con.

Press coverage and more commentary

The case made the front page of the Times, the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.

It was also featured on Pink News.

Various members of the legal profession weighed in….

Sarah Phillimore picked out her highlights and identified a particular quote as unforgettable

Sex Matters, the organisation founded and lead by Maya Forstater published an analysis of the decision with cautionary words for employers.

Simon Myerson, QC, published this short thread on mitigation.

A tweet thread from Levins Law on ‘inducement’

One of the very first articles appearing on the judgement was this article in Personnel Today, which is widely read by HR professionals and included this quote:

“Employers should take care to ensure steps taken with the laudable intention of supporting and including transgender people don’t inadvertently infringe upon the rights of others. It can be a difficult balance, and employers should take advice from lawyers, rather than interest groups.”

A bit more pointed, from Twitter:

In conclusion, absent an appeal of the decision from Garden Court Chambers, this is likely to be our last coverage of Allison Bailey vs Garden Court Chambers et al. This is the Tribunal Tweets team signing off from the case that gave us the Judge’s cat, the support dog, record numbers observing an employment tribunal and references to post-apartheid reconciliation from the parties you would not expect.