Doyle Clayton fields a ‘top quality team across the board,’ with particular strengths in sex discrimination in the public sector. The firm also acts in harassment, maternity and pregnancy discrimination cases, in combination with claims for unlawful conspiracy. Peter De Maria spearheads the practice and is known for his work on new service and settlement agreements. With expertise in both contentious and non-contentious exits, Dan Begbie-Clench regularly negotiates severances packages and employment terms. Other key names in the team are Peter Daly, who specialises in public sector discrimination and unfair dismissal claims.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Peter De Maria is one of the most knowledgeable, pragmatic and user-friendly solicitors advising in this practice area.' 

  • ‘Peter Daly is a truly outstanding lawyer: completely on top of the law, creative and thoughtful, fantastic with clients, able to generate and navigate publicity and press interest, an absolute pleasure to work with.' 

  • 'Emma Hamnett has fantastic knowledge and experience in High Court disputes on challenging and technical areas of employment law.'
  • ‘Robert Maddox - excellent client care, ability to deal with both technical detail and think about wider strategy.’

  • 'Top quality team across the board.'

  • ‘Dan Begbie-Clench was excellent as the partner in charge of this matter. He was empathetic yet robust throughout a difficult process.' 

  • ‘The Doyle Clayton team provide real strength in depth from partners to junior associates, and have a standout breadth of experience across many industry sectors including tech and private equity. They take a firm position in all cases but are also able to provide realistic commercial advice as to how to handle a case. The collaboration within teams is excellent.’

Work highlights

  • Acting for Allison Bailey, who alleged that she had been discriminated against by her chambers for holding gender critical beliefs, and that this discrimination had been induced, caused or instructed by Stonewall per s111 Equality Act 2010.
  • Instructed by professors at Oxford University to challenge the University’s statutes which impose enforced retirement.
  • Acted for Maya Forstater in a case which successfully established gender critical beliefs as protected under the Equality Act 2010.

Lawyers

Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Doyle Clayton
Peter is a partner specialising in all areas of employment law. He has particular expertise in advising on the enforcement of restrictive covenants, team moves and bonus claims in the High Court. He is regularly involved in the resolution of boardroom disputes and in high value and complex employment tribunal cases concerning discrimination and whistleblowing.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Doyle Clayton
Peter Daly is a Partner within the employment team with a track record of pursuing high profile and complex litigation, and of resolving disputes effectively. His work pushes the boundaries of discrimination and whistleblowing law and both Chambers and The Legal 500 rank him as one of the UK’s leading employment lawyers with reviews including: "He is one of the best employment lawyers out there on the claimant side in terms of technical knowledge and skill; his approach to strategy is second to none." … "He has novel arguments and is willing to go the extra mile for his clients."… "He's a very good lawyer and he is very creative." Chambers and Partners 2021 “Peter Daly is an exceptionally smart lawyer, technically strong and eminently pragmatic. From a client perspective, during what was an emotionally charged time, he showed compassion whilst never losing sight of achieving a good client outcome.” The Legal 500 2021 “Peter Daly has an encyclopaedic knowledge of employment practice as well as a very effective strategic mind.” The Legal 500 2020 “imaginative yet sensitive to the immediate needs of any client' and has 'strong attention to detail.” The Legal 500 2017 “an excellent legal mind and analytical skills” The Legal 500 2016

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Peter De Maria

Other key lawyers

Dan Begbie-Clench, Peter Daly, Emma Hamnett, Robert Maddox