Experience

I’m an associate in the Dispute Resolution & Litigation team at Bates Wells. I work with charities, campaigning organisations, and for-profit companies of all kinds who find themselves facing actual or threatened court action, or who are required to use the legal system to defend their own rights.

Highlights
  • Working with a major national political party facing discrimination allegations in relation to gender-critical beliefs: I worked with the Green Party of England and Wales sued by one of its members and former spokespeople in one of the many recent discrimination claims involving gender-critical beliefs. The judgment covered new ground and considered important principles on the rights and freedoms of political parties to associate as they see fit, and how courts must balance these rights against the rights of party members not to be discriminated against for holding protected philosophical beliefs.
  • Advising charities and political and other organisations on equality and discrimination law issues: I have worked with many household-name organisations, often advising them on issues engaging the most complex and controversial areas of equality law. These have included political parties, national membership charities, homelessness charities and student unions, among others. I have advised both on strengthening and clarifying policies to try and minimise the risk of claims being brought, and on mediating, resolving or (if necessary) robustly defending claims once they arise.
  • Acting for a national arts charity on an ongoing trust law claim: I currently act for one of the highest-profile performing arts charities in the country in an ongoing claim arising out of complex constitutional arrangements dating back to the nineteenth century. In July 2025, I helped the charity successfully resist an application for summary judgment in the claim and secure a substantial costs award in its favour. The claim is ongoing.
  • Advising a household-name charity on legacy issues: I have worked with a major household-name charity on multiple matters on a variety of matters involving disputes over gifts in wills. These have included dealing with an executor suspected of attempting to make away with a six-figure sum from the deceased’s estate by misrepresenting the estate value and responding to another executor’s claim that they were entitled to retain out of estate funds the value of an alleged promised gift to them from the deceased. Both matters were resolved in the charity’s favour without proceedings through robust correspondence, collectively saving the charity around half a million pounds.
  • Helping a range of clients defend legacy claims: I frequently assist clients of all kinds with claims arising out of gifts under wills. Recent examples include a recently-settled trust claim brought against an individual client by the children of her late husband’s first marriage for the proceeds of sale of a French property claimed to have been held on trust for them.
  • Complex shareholder and trust litigation: I acted for one of the parties in a major complex ongoing shareholder dispute worth several million pounds and engaging issues of corporate, trust and insolvency law. The claim was successfully settled.
  • Helping a borough councillor avoid disqualification: I advised a councillor on difficult electoral law issues relating to his electoral registration, residency, and qualification to hold office, helping him to overturn a provisional decision to remove him from the electoral register and disqualify him as a councillor.
  • Advising charities on relationships with their local branches and associations: I have advised national high street charities and regional organisations on their legal relationships with their local branches, helping to ensure that their disciplinary and constitutional arrangements are rational, clear, consistent, and as free of legal risk as possible.