Olivia-Faith Dobbie
Call: 2007
“Olivia is a fantastic advocate, who handles the most difficult cases with aplomb and inspires confidence in the client.” - Legal 500 2025
"Olivia-Faith is my go-to counsel on all difficult employment tribunal cases." "Olivia-Faith displays excellent attention to detail and has exceptional knowledge of the law." "She is methodical in her cross-examination and meticulous in her preparation." "Her advocacy is exceptional: thorough, precise and beautifully written." "Olivia-Faith is an intellectual heavyweight." - Chambers & Partners 2025
Listed as a leading barrister by Doyle’s Guide London 2024 for employment law.
“Olivia is excellent with clients, and exceptionally strong in cross-examination. She is at the top of her game.” - Legal 500 2024
"She is very responsive as well as being client-focused with excellent advocacy." "A tireless and effective barrister, Olivia is always on top of the papers and the quality of her work speaks for itself." "I am very impressed with Olivia's expertise, attention to detail and advocacy. She is very approachable." - Chambers & Partners 2024
“Clear advice, ability to get to the key issues quickly, excellent soft skills, and a strong communicator.” - Legal 500 2023
"Olivia is an outstanding employment barrister. She can explain the most complex and sensitive employment law issues to clients from all industry sectors." "She performs extremely well in court with a confident, calm, measured and quick-thinking approach." - Chambers & Partners 2023
-
Olivia is an employment law expert with extensive experience of a broad range of disputes, both in the Civil Courts and the Employment Tribunals. She has a sound appellate practice with cases at all levels from the Employment Appeal Tribunal to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Olivia was appointed as a part-time Employment Judge in 2020 and regularly sits on a wide range of cases, including multi-day discrimination claims. In 2024, she was appointed as a Recorder (a part-time Circuit Judge) undertaking Civil Law in the South Eastern Circuit. Olivia is Head of Employment at Cloisters and sits on the Management Committee of the Employment Lawyers’ Association (ELA) as D&I Lead.
Olivia regularly acts in high value and significant cases. In 2023, Olivia acted as sole counsel for the Respondent in the widely-publicised case of Forstater v CGD, which was the first case concerning freedom of expression of gender critical views to go to a final hearing. In late 2024, she acted as junior to Caspar Glyn KC in a mass claim brought by approximately 16,000 private-hire drivers who successfully established their right to be paid holiday pay and minimum wage. Olivia is also instructed on mass supermarket equal pay claims against Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco (representing thousands of workers) led by Rachel Crasnow KC. Olivia also regularly appears in the EAT as sole counsel.
In her daily practice, Olivia has a particularly strong reputation for discrimination, holiday pay, employment status and whistleblowing. Due to her depth of knowledge of discrimination law, Olivia also represents clients and advises on discrimination claims in the civil court in the areas of Goods & Services, Education and Associations (including members’ clubs and political parties).
Olivia is also highly sought after for her experience in undertaking internal investigations or conducting disciplinary and grievance procedures for a wide range of clients, from higher education institutions to commercial undertakings, solicitors' firms to political parties. She often handles very sensitive allegations such as sexual assault and other serious allegations against C-level executives, senior partners and senior academics.
In recent times, Olivia has advised numerous clients including schools, local authorities, fire services and private commercial companies with respect to handling changes to holiday pay law for thousands of employees. She has also represented respondents (one local authority and one commercial undertaking) in large multiple claims in respect of holiday pay. One such case resulted in amendments to the terms and conditions of thousands of workers. Due to this expertise in holiday pay and working time, Olivia has appeared on BBC radio and television discussing this topic on various occasions, including on the Victoria Derbyshire show, the six and ten o'clock BBC news and BBC Radio.
Olivia is ranked in both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners 2024 (and has been ranked since 2012).
-
Chambers & Partners 2025: Ranked Band 3 (Employment) "Olivia-Faith is my go-to counsel on all difficult employment tribunal cases." "Olivia-Faith displays excellent attention to detail and has exceptional knowledge of the law." "She is methodical in her cross-examination and meticulous in her preparation." "Her advocacy is exceptional: thorough, precise and beautifully written." "Olivia-Faith is an intellectual heavyweight."
Legal 500 2025: Ranked Tier 2 (Employment) “Olivia is a fantastic advocate, who handles the most difficult cases with aplomb and inspires confidence in the client.”
Chambers & Partners 2024: Ranked Band 3 (Employment) "She is very responsive as well as being client-focused with excellent advocacy." "A tireless and effective barrister, Olivia is always on top of the papers and the quality of her work speaks for itself." "I am very impressed with Olivia's expertise, attention to detail and advocacy. She is very approachable." “Olivia-Faith Dobbie handles a far-reaching employment practice specialising in discrimination claims and working time disputes. She represents clients both at employment tribunals and in court.”
Legal 500 2024: Ranked Tier 2 (Employment) “Olivia is excellent with clients, and exceptionally strong in cross-examination. She is at the top of her game.”
Chambers & Partners 2023: "Olivia is an outstanding employment barrister. She can explain the most complex and sensitive employment law issues to clients from all industry sectors." "She performs extremely well in court with a confident, calm, measured and quick-thinking approach."
Legal 500 2023: “Clear advice, ability to get to the key issues quickly, excellent soft skills, and a strong communicator.”
Chambers & Partners 2022: "A fantastic advocate." "Very impressive - a winning combination of being very efficient but also a really nice person to deal with." "She is a fantastically knowledgeable and very commercial barrister, and she is an excellent communicator. Her eye for detail is great and she meets deadlines." "Olivia is a strong all-rounder who has built a deserved reputation for being a capable pair of hands for tricky cases."
Legal 500 2022: "An excellent employment barrister- highly recommended."
Chambers & Partners 2021: "A fantastic advocate." "Very impressive - a winning combination of being very efficient but also a really nice person to deal with."
Legal 500 2021: "Provides digestible and commercial advice that clients can rely upon."
Chambers & Partners 2020: "She really knows the holiday pay area very well and can explain things to clients in a clear and easily understandable way." "A brilliant junior and one to watch."
Legal 500 2020: "Excellent ability to digest complex fact patterns and legal issues and to distil these into a sensible and commercial proposals for the client."
Chambers & Partners 2019: "Handles a far-reaching employment practice, specialising in discrimination claims and working time disputes. She represents clients both at Employment Tribunals and in court, and has a growing practice handling High Court litigation." "Cool, calm and professional." "She has a real eye for detail and a winning style with clients. She is terrifically smart and a real pleasure to work with."
Chambers & Partners 2018: “She is brilliant, very personable and charming.”
Chambers & Partners 2017: "She is excellent at getting on top of the brief and provides strategic advice for success at tribunal." "She has a calm, structured approach to advice, providing absolute clarity in opinion."
Chambers & Partners 2016: "Described by respondents as a barrister "who is going places" she has a strong reputation for her "great experience and cool head." She is a sought-after advocate for a range of employment disputes. "She is meticulous in preparation and very effective in cross-examination, leaving no stone unturned". "A clear, thorough and strong advocate."
Chambers & Partners 2015: "Her work is at a high level and she always goes the extra mile." "Approachable, commercial and able to turn around complex instructions in a short timescale."
Chambers & Partners 2014: "The amount of preparation that goes into her work is impressive. No stone was left unturned." and "I am particularly impressed with her closing written submissions; they are amongst the best that I've ever read."
Chambers & Partners 2013: "user-friendly, commercial and tenacious."
-
Recorder (Civil) since 2024
Employment Judge, since 2020 (part time)
Employment Lawyers Association, Management Committee and D&I Lead
Head of Employment Law at Cloisters Chambers
Industrial Law Society (member)
Discrimination Law Association (member)
Employment Law Bar Association (member)
-
Cloisters’ blog, November 2023: Indirect Discrimination by Association: An end to the Confusion (at last)
ELA Briefing, January 2018: Can't Use it Don't Lose it, the Avalanche of Rolling Over Holiday Pay
Adviser magazine, October 2015: Holiday Pay: What should you be advising employees?
Oxford Human Rights Hub, June 2015: Lee v Ashers Bakery: Cake Now or Cake Later?
ELA Briefing, February 2015: How far can a Tribunal go to assist a litigant in person?
Solicitor's Journal, Half Year Review, 2013: Treated Equally
Discrimination Law Handbook, Legal Action Group (practitioner's text), 2013, author of three chapters
ELA Briefing, June 2011: Exploring Combined Discrimination
Practical Law Company (online) 2011 section on Some Other Substantial Reason
Counsel Magazine, December 2008: ‘Discrimination: Sidelined by Semantics'.
Counsel Magazine, April 2007: ‘An End to the Blame Culture?'
London Law Review, October 2006: ‘The Compatibility of a Bill of Rights in a Deliberative Democracy'
-
College of Law (BVC)
King's College London (LLB Law with honours)
Middle Temple, Blackstone Scholarship
University of Bologna (Italy), Study Scholarship – Human Rights
-
Bandi and Ors v Bolt Operations OU and Bolt Services UK Ltd 2024 (employment status and the right to claim holiday and minimum wage for 16,000 Bolt drivers)
Thousands of Claimants v Sainsbury’s Supermarkets; Tesco Stores; Asda Stores Ltd and WM Morrison Supermarkets (ongoing equal pay litigation);
Forstater v Centre for Global Development 2022/23 (concerning gender critical beliefs;
Williams v The Trustees of Swansea University Pension & Assurance Scheme & Anor UKSC 65 2018 (on the meaning of ‘unfavourable' under Section 15 of the Equality Act 2010);
Guimaraes v Findlater & Ors UKEAT 0236/16/3101 2017 (on employment status);
Nawaz v BG Consulting Group Limited UKEAT/0088/17 (on bias and cutting and pasting from counsel's submissions)
British Gurkha Welfare Society & Others v Ministry of Defence (2017), European Court of Human Rights (discrimination in pensions)
British Gas Services v Basra [2015] 1 ICR D5
Centrewest London Buses Limited v Spencer [2013] UKEAT/0481/12 (Tolley's Employment Handbook 2014 and Westlaw)
X v Mid Sussex CAB and Ors [2013] 2 CMLR 16, [2013] ICR 249
X v Mid Sussex CAB and Ors [2011] ICR 460, [2011] 2 CMLR 18, [2011] IRLR 335
Hine & Another v Talbot & Others (2011) UKEATPA/1783/10/SM
British Gurkha Welfare Society & Others v Ministry of Defence [2010] EWCA Civ 1098 [2010] All ER (D) 131 (Oct)
British Gurkha Welfare Society & Others v Ministry of Defence [2010] EWHC 3 (Admin)
