Laurene acts in the areas of equality law, employment, clinical negligence, public law and data protection law. She also acts as an investigator of grievances, allegations of discrimination and allegations by whistleblowers.

Employment and equality claims

Laurene acts in the full range of employment claims, including health and safety at work, pay and conditions, working time, redundancies and discrimination.

She advises on pre-action strategy, appeals and settlement negotiations. She recently negotiated a settlement of over £200,000 for a worker subjected to race discrimination, harassment and victimisation in a multinational company.

Laurene has particular experience in pregnancy and maternity discrimination, including redundancy after maternity leave and detrimental treatment of pregnant workers. She has written about the gaps in the law to address gender inequality at work, especially for new and expectant mothers.

She is regularly instructed by large established trade unions and younger unions mobilising precarious sectors. She has experience in a range of collective claims including in the context of collective bargaining and mass redundancies.

Discrimination in services

Laurene acts in County Court claims for discrimination in services and housing. She has advised on the failure to make adjustments for disabled service users, discriminatory tenancy conditions and unequal access to services during the pandemic.

Many of Laurene’s clients are people with disabilities bringing either Equality Act or clinical negligence claims. She has particular experience representing people with invisible disabilities and disabilities made worse by working conditions.

Personal injury and clinical negligence

Laurene regularly represents claimants in fast track and multi-track clinical negligence claims including in birth cases involving multiple experts where liability is disputed, as well as claims on behalf of infants and minors with long-term future loss calculations. She has particular experience drafting complex schedules of loss.

Mass litigation / group claims

For over 2.5 years Laurene has been part of the counsel team in a successful discrimination and victimisation claim on behalf of thousands of claimants. She has also worked on several large equal pay claims both at the stage of defining work of ‘equal value’ and the material defence stage.

Investigations

Laurene acts as investigator of grievances including whistleblowing and allegations of discrimination and harassment. She recently investigated grievances arising from conflicting political views between employees. Her expertise in discrimination law is particularly valuable both in terms of understanding the various elements of the issues to be investigated, and ensuring that the methodology used is fair and accessible.

She has also assisted on several large-scale investigations within NGOs, universities and trade unions.

Public and international law

Laurene was on the counsel team of the Infected Blood Inquiry and also undertook work for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. She has experience in UK administrative law cases and in international jurisdictions such as the Commonwealth Secretariat Appeal Tribunal.

Data Protection

Laurene has advised and represented in claims and appeals in the County Court for data protection breaches.

Prior to joining the Bar, Laurene worked in humanitarian relief in the Middle East. She speaks fluent French, Arabic and Spanish and gets by in Farsi.

MA Politics and Arabic (with Distinction) University of Edinburgh

Graduate Diploma in Law, City, University of London

Bar Professional Training Course with LLM (with Distinction) City, University of London

Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC)

Constitutional and Administrative Law Association (ALBA)

Discrimination Law Association (DLA)

Employment Lawyers Association (ELA)

Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers

Industrial Law Society (ILS)

Legal Sectors Workers Union (LSWU)

Inner Temple – 2018 BPTC Exhibition Award

Inner Temple – 2017 GDL Exhibition Award

Evan Ashfield Memorial Prize 2018 for best BPTC - FRU result

33 Bedford Row 2018 Prize for best performance in Clinical Legal Practice (City Law School)

University of Edinburgh – 2014 Irene Crawford Prize for best undergraduate in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

University of Edinburgh – 2014 Carole Hillenbrand Prize for best undergraduate dissertation in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies