Catherine appears for both claimants and respondents in the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal, with clients including supermarkets, airlines, local authorities, NHS trusts, schools and universities, hotels, private individuals, companies of all sizes, and charities. She undertakes all types of employment work, from advising on the merits of a claim to drafting documents, from attending preliminary hearings through to multi-day final hearings at Tribunals around the country – and, since the coronavirus pandemic, by video link.

In particular, she has experience of ‘ordinary’ and automatically unfair dismissal; constructive dismissal; redundancy; whistleblowing; dismissal or detriment on the grounds of trade union membership or activities; discrimination based on sex, race, pregnancy and maternity, religion and belief, age, and disability, including hearings to determine disability status; disputes over employment status; strike out applications; and applications for costs. She regularly acts for clients in judicial mediations and is experienced in drafting and advising on settlement agreements, and drafting particulars of claim, grounds of response and grounds of appeal.

She has considerable experience of interim relief hearings, and has published a guide to bringing and defending interim relief claims here.

Her employment work has led her to be ranked in both Chambers and Partners, and Legal 500, where she is listed in Tier 3 in the 2025 edition for Employment at the London Bar.

Catherine feels strongly that there is little support for litigants bringing employment claims who do not have funding (such as through insurance or their trade union). Employment tribunals can be confusing places and employment law can be complex. So for the past five years, Catherine has regularly volunteered at the Employment Tribunal Litigant in Person Support Scheme (ELIPS), which assists litigants who cannot afford representation.

Catherine also regularly writes articles, and presents seminars in chambers and in-house at solicitors’ firms, on aspects of employment law. Recent topics include: striking out claims in the employment tribunal; employment law pitfalls when working from home; getting the best evidence from your witness; how to deal with covert recordings; and managing long-term sickness absence. 

She is a confident public speaker, and has helped to present the 42BR Annual Lecture in both 2021 and 2022. You can watch the 2022 Annual Lecture here.

Her recent employment work includes:

• Pilkington UK Ltd v Jones [2023] EAT 90 - a case on whether a respondent’s belief or state of mind can be something that arises from a claimant’s disability for the purposes of a claim under s15 of the Equality Act 2010. 
• Reverend JG Hargreaves v Evolve Housing + Support [2023] EAT 154, which considered the circumstances in which a claimant’s vexatious, scandalous and unreasonable behaviour could be said to prevent a fair trial being heard. 
• Gavli and Ali v LHR Airports Ltd (UKEAT/0012/21/BA), which concerns certain circumstances in which the tribunal should consider making an uplifted award for a breach of the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.
• Truman v Network Rail Infrastructure Limited & Ors, April 2024 - A complex discrimination claim against three respondents in which Catherine represented NRIL. All the claims were dismissed, but an appeal on the little litigated subject of competence standards and relevant qualifications will be heard over two days in 2025.
• J and N v Travelodge Hotels Limited, November 2024 - Catherine regularly represents Travelodge. In this ‘whistleblowing’ case, the claimants were found not to have made protected disclosures and nor had they suffered any detriments; all claims were dismissed.
• J v Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Service, August 2023 - An unusual hearing in which the claimant was found to have discussed her evidence whilst under oath – Catherine successfully applied for all her claims to be struck out.
• B & Ors v London Underground Limited, September 2023 - Catherine is regularly instructed to represent London Underground. In this case, union reps brought claims under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations 1977 that they were being prevented from carrying out their safety inspections: all the claims were dismissed.