Employment Law

Grace accepts instructions across the full spectrum of employment and discrimination law, for both claimants and respondents/defendants. She has acted in multi-day cases involving complex issues and has appeared in the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Grace has particular expertise in the application of artificial intelligence and data protection to employment and discrimination law. She also has experience of claims with a cross-border or international element.

Recent experience includes:

• A Szucs v GreenSquare Group Ltd EA-2022-000975-RN: instructed by the Claimant unled in a successful appeal to the EAT concerning the correct test for victimisation causation and the application of Martin v Devonshires. The matter has now been remitted to the tribunal.

• Artificial Intelligence and Employment Bill for the Trades Union Congress: assisting Robin Allen KC and Dee Masters on the drafting of a bill to improve the regulation and protections relating to artificial intelligence in the workplace. Grace has also assisted Robin Allen and Dee Masters in advising on data protection law for an independent research institute.

• Twist DX v Armes [2024] EAT 45: instructed by the Claimants in the EAT (led by Andrew Watson) in a complex appeal on the scope of the Employment Tribunal’s territorial jurisdiction for non-UK based Respondents. The Claim is pleaded at over £20 million and the Claimants were successful on almost all points. The case attracted comment in Employment Cases Update, Daniel Barnett and IDS.

• Ambridge v. Maleary and others - High Court: Acting for Mr Maleary in an ongoing High Court restrictive covenant case (led by Paul Epstein KC and Paul Michell). For recent press coverage see here: The Insurer and Insurance Insider.

• Acting as a junior to Ed Williams KC in a high profile and complex whistleblowing detriment and discrimination investigation.

• Advising a union on the lawfulness of an employer using protected characteristics to determine promotion and redundancy exercises.

• Advising the Claimant on a contractual interpretation issue relating to a TUPE transfer.

• Advising an FGM charity on the discrimination implications of the NHS’s policy of refusing to offer reconstructive surgery.

• Acting for the workers in relation to a successful application to form a bargaining unit to the Central Arbitration Committee.

• Acting successfully for the Respondent care home in a multi-day discrimination and unfair dismissal final hearing.

• Acting successfully for the Respondent in a multi-day unfair and wrongful dismissal claim.

Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence

Grace has appeared for personal injury and clinical negligence related matters in both the High Court and County Court. She is regularly brought in as junior counsel to draft complex multi-million-pound Schedules of Loss. She was a contributor to the 16th edition of Bingham and Berrymans' Personal Injury and Motor Claims Cases (2023), working on the Chapter “Principles of Quantum”.

Recent work includes:

• Appearing for the claimant in a High Court case management conference in a clinical negligence claim valued in excess of £10 million.

• Drafting and updating complex schedules of loss, including for schedules valued in excess of £10 million.

• Acting for the Claimant in an ongoing dental negligence claim.

• Acting for the Claimant in a clinical negligence claim involving complex issues of causation.

• Acting for the Claimant successfully in a tripping claim against a county council where liability was fiercely contested.

Grace also recently represented the family at an inquest following a road traffic accident, where inadequate traffic signalling led to a prevention of future death report.

Public Law

Grace has expertise in housing law, judicial reviews and inquests which touch on Article 2 issues. During her pupillage, she assisted in drafting pleadings in matters of sensitive public law.

She is presently instructed on several housing/homeless judicial reviews including a review challenging the suitability of interim accommodation provided under section 188(1) of the Housing Act 1996 and a review challenging the adequacy of asylum accommodation provided under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

Grace is on the Government Legal Department’s junior-junior scheme. She has been instructed by the Cabinet Office on the Covid Inquiry, and has been instructed as a junior for the Secretary of State for Justice in a judicial review challenging the operation of a high security prison regime.

Before Cloisters

Before coming to the bar, Grace read Mathematics at New College, Oxford, where she graduated with a First-Class degree. Her degree incorporated studies of statistical lifetime models and coding, which makes her well-placed to accept instructions which involve a mathematical dimension, whether due to complex technical or quantum components.

While at Oxford University, Grace was Campaigns Officer for the Amnesty International Society. Grace has worked on a variety of pro-bono projects including the School Exclusion Project and Camden Community Law Centre. At the latter, she gained experience in employment, housing and asylum law. She drafted written representations and acted as a legal advisor at the centre’s drop-in service.