Allison Bailey vs Stonewall and Garden Court Chambers - Omnibus Summary of Proceedings
25 April through 27 May 2022
Allison Bailey, is suing her chambers, members of her chambers and Stonewall, a UK charity, in the Central London Employment Tribunal (the Tribunal) . Ms Bailey helped to set up a new organisation for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, the LGB Alliance, to provide an alternative to Stonewall. Stonewall allegedly had her investigated by her chambers. See more about the case here.
Allison Bailey (AB or the claimant) is alleging that Stonewall ( a UK charity) caused Garden Court Chambers (and Garden Court Chambers did so) to directly discriminate against Allison because of her gender critical beliefs (or alternatively victimised her) and/or indirectly discriminated against her on the basis of sex/sexual orientation. There are a number of possible outcomes from this claim as AB could win damages against both GCC and Stonewall, one or neither See more about her claim here.
Twitter featured heavily in Tribunal proceedings. AB’s claim includes a number of her tweets as ‘protected acts’, these are disputed by the respondents. See the most significant tweets here.
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.
Live-Tweet Threads
Tribunal Tweets live-tweeted all public proceedings of the Tribunal. Links to the tweet threads are here, with the principal witnesses for each week, broken down by date and morning and afternoon sessions.
Examination and cross examination on behalf of Allison Bailey by Ben Cooper, QC, pictured above.
Examination and cross examination on behalf of Stonewall by Ijeoma Omambala QC and on behalf of Garden Court Chambers by Andrew Hochhauser QC and Jane Russell.
29 April to 6 May 2022: evidence from Dr. Nicola Williams of FairPlay for Women, Dr. Judith Green of Woman’s Place, Kate Barker, managing director of LGB Alliance , Stephen Lue of Garden Court Chambers (GCC), Lisa-Marie Taylor of Filia and Allison Bailey.
9 to 13 May 2022: evidence from Allison Bailey, Zainab Al Farabi of Stonewall ( Client Account Manager for Garden Court), Kirrin Medcalf of Stonewall (Head of Trans Inclusion) and Leslie Thomas of GCC.
16 to 20 May 2022: evidence from Sanjay Sood-Smith of Stonewall, Shaan Knan of Stonewall, Rajiv Menon QC of GCC, Maya Sikand QC (previously of GCC), Mia Hakl-Law of GCC, Judy Khan QC, joint Head of GCC 2016-2020 & Chair 2020-2021, Charlie Tennant of GCC (clerk), Luke Harvey of GCC (clerk), Louise Hooper of GCC & Trans Equality Legal Initiative and David Renton of GCC and chambers roommate of Allison Bailey at GCC for 10 years.
23 to 26 May 2022: evidence from Marc Willers, QC, joint head of GCC until 2020, Stephen Clark QC of GCC, Liz Davies QC of GCC, Cathryn McGahey QC (at the relevant time was Vice Chair of the Bar Council Ethics Committee and gave advice to GCC), Tom Wainwright of GCC, Colin Cook of GCC (clerk), David Renton of GCC and chambers roommate of Allison Bailey at GCC for 10 years, David De Menezes GCC Director of Communications and Marketing, Kathryn Cronin of GCC (joint Head of Garden Court Chambers until 2017), Michelle Brewer formerly of GCC and now a judge and Stephanie Harrison QC of GCC and joint head of chambers for part of the period covered by the claim.
20 June 2022 - closing submissions from counsel for all parties.
What happens next?
Awaiting judgement from the Tribunal. No date published.
Abbreviations:
THE COURT
EJ = Employment Judge Goodman hearing the case
Panel = any one of the three panel members (EJ and two lay members)
CD = refers to ‘core duties’ of barristers
THE CLAIMANT
AB: Allison Bailey, claimant
BC: Ben Cooper QC, barrister for AB
RESPONDENTS
SW = Stonewall Equality Limited (respondent 1)
IO = Ijeoma Omambala QC, barrister for SW
RW = Robin White assisting IO
GC = Garden Court Chambers Limited (respondent 2)
RM = Rajiv Menon QC & SH = Stephanie Harrison QC (jointly respondent 3 along with all members of GCC except AB)
(Respondents 2 & 3 are in practice indistinguishable; Garden Court Chambers are respondents both corporately and as the set of individuals making up the Chambers)
AH = Andrew Hochhauser QC, barrister for GC (respondents 2 & 3)
JR = Jane Russell assisting AH
STONEWALL
STAG = Stonewall Trans Advisory Group
RH = Ruth Hunt, Stonewall Chief Executive 2014-2019
PT = Paul Twocock, interim Stonewall Chief Executive 2019-2020 & Director of Campaigns, Policy & Research
NK = Nancy Kelley, Stonewall Chief Executive 2020 to date
RK = Reg Kheraj, Stonewall Client Account Manager for Garden Court Chambers to March 2019
ZA = Zainab Al-Farabi, Stonewall Client Account Manager for Garden Court Chambers from April 2019
Please note for all other persons listed below - they may not still be in the positions listed as the list is an "as of" one for the events being considered, approximately mid 2018 to early 2020.
KM = Kirrin Medcalf, Stonewall Head Of Trans Inclusion
KB = Katie Budd, Stonewall Workplace Resources Manager
TB = Tracey Burley, Stonewall Chief Operating Officer
VG = Victoria Green, Stonewall Director of Finance and Operations
LJ = Leon Jones, Stonewall IT Manager (consultant)
MK = Mark Kember, Stonewall Director of Membership Operations
SM = Stuart March, Stonewall Head of Data and Insights
SS = Sanjay Sood-Smith, Stonewall Director of Empowerment Programmes & then Stonewall Executive Director of Workplace & Community Programmes
CS = Charlotte Suttle, Stonewall Senior Workplace Programmes Manager
KW = Kate Williams, Head of Memberships - Private Sector
AD = Alex Drummond. a member of STAG
SK = Shaan Knan, LGBT Consortium Trans Organisations Network Officer, a member of STAG
GARDEN COURT CHAMBERS
TRWG = Trans Rights Working Group
Members of Chambers:
HB = Henry Blaxland QC, Head of Chambers until 2017
MB = Michelle Brewer
SC = Stephen Clark
KC = Kathryn Cronin, joint Head of Chambers until 2017
MW = Marc Willers QC, joint Head of Chambers until 2020
LD = Liz Davies QC, joint Head of Chambers from 2020
MG = Mark Gatley [now QC]
KH = Kirsten Heaven
LH = Louise Hooper
JK = Judy Khan QC, joint Head of Chambers 2016-2020 Chair 2020-2021
SSL = Shu Shin Luh
SL = Stephen Lue
AM = Allison Monroe QC
DR = David Renton
MR = Marguerite Russell
AS = Alex Sharpe
MS = Maya Sikand [now QC]
SS = Stephen Simblet [now QC]
LS = Leslie Thomas QC, Chair and joint Head of Chambers to 2020
TW = Tom Wainright
EW = Elizabeth Woodcraft
Clerks:
MB = Michael Barrett
CC = Colin Cook
MOD = Matt O'Down
CE = Christian Eleftheriou
LH = Luke Harvey
CS = Chloe Skingsley
CT = Charlie Tennent
Other Chambers staff:
DM = David De Menezes, Director of Communications and Marketing
GF = Glenn Fletcher, Chief Executive and Board member to end 2019
MHL = Mia Hakl-Law, Director of Human Resources and Operations
EN = Emman Nash, Head of Public Law Practice Team
DN = David Neale, legal researcher
ST = Sharon Thomas, Head of Human Resources and Operations 9/18-3/19
BAR STANDARDS BOARD / BAR COUNCIL
CM = Cathryn McGahey QC, Vice Chair of Bar Ethics Committee
AP = Amit Popat, Head of Equality and Access to Justice
SM = Sam Mercer, Executive of Bar Council Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility Committee