3PB

Employment and Discrimination; Education; Public and Regulatory

Overview

Katherine is an experienced education and employment law specialist who offers first class customer service, legal advice and advocacy.

Her practice now encompasses:

• Employment
• Education.

Katherine has undertaken a number of successful judicial and private mediations as an Accredited Mediation Advocate.

Katherine was educated at Cambridge University, United Kingdom, and Harvard University, United States. She completed her postgraduate Diploma in Law at City University and her Bar Vocational Course at BPP School of Law, where she was graded ‘Outstanding’. She has been a tenant of 3PB Barristers since the completion of her pupillage there.

Employment and discrimination

Katherine is an experienced employment law specialist who has acted for and advised claimant and respondent employers in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

She offers particular expertise in relation to disability and other discrimination cases with a personal injury mental health aspect.

By way of example, recent cases include:

• A claim of alleged disability discrimination, relating to depression and  stress at work, providing detailed advice in relation to case preparation
• Representation of a claimant manager in a high value claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation
• Representation of a respondent manager defending a race discrimination claim brought by the deceased’s executors with a high value personal injury aspect
• Representation of a respondent School Governing Body in relation to an unfair dismissal claim brought by an employee accused of lying about her qualifications
• Representation of a respondent nursery provider in relation to an unfair dismissal claim brought by an employee accused of sexual abuse of a child
• An alleged constructive “whistle-blowing” dismissal where the employee complained of a dangerous workplace

She has undertaken a number of successful judicial and private mediations as an Accredited Mediation Advocate.

In her employment practice she has a particular interest in the education sector and has acted in employment cases concerning staff at nurseries, schools and universities (see also Katherine’s Education Law profile).

Education

Katherine is an experienced education law specialist with a particular interest in special educational needs. She is familiar with the issues that may arise in relation to mental capacity in education cases.

She accepts instructions from local authorities, schools, parents, young people, students and universities, as well as employers/employees in the education sector, in relation to:

• Appeals and claims before the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)
• School admissions
• School exclusions
• Equality Act 2010 claims in the civil courts
• Judicial review
• Employment tribunal proceedings (see also Katherine’s Employment law profile).

Recent cases:

Katherine has acted in many complex cases concerning special educational, health and social care for post-16 and post-19 year olds in Education and Health and Care plans, including under the National Trial.

She has recently acted in appeals to the Upper Tribunal regarding the special educational provision for a physically disabled child with a fluctuating health condition, and regarding the interrelationship between the social care and special educational provision in an EHC plan for a young person over 19 years of age.

Other recent cases have involved disputes around:

• Educational negligence
• Home education of a child for medical reasons
• Special educational provision for children outside of the normal school day
• The level of therapeutic provision reasonably required to meet a child’s special educational needs
• Sensory profiles as special educational provision
• Disability discrimination – school exclusions
• Disability discrimination – failure to make reasonable adjustments
• Disability discrimination claims against universities by students who were required to withdraw from their courses.

Katherine also provides training in education law to a variety of different audiences, including local authorities, solicitors, university student advisors, lay panel members and educational experts.

She is herself a parent of young children.

Reported Case:

RB v Calderdale MBC (SEN): [2018] UKUT 390 (AAC)

Public and Regulatory

Katherine is an expert in all aspects of education law, with a particular interest in special educational needs. She accepts instructions from local authorities, schools, parents, young people, students and universities, as well as employers/employees in the education sector. Her busy caseload also includes judicial review cases in the education sector.

Year of call 2005, Inner Temple.