Our team is nationally recognised for its expertise in discrimination and equality law.
We act in discrimination claims across a wide range of areas, including policing, prisons, local and national government, the provision of support for migrants, and immigration detention. We obtain injunctions to prevent ongoing discrimination and declarations of unlawful discriminatory practice, quashing orders, and substantial financial settlements. We have secured justice for hundreds of people in this area and achieved fundamental improvements to how organisations implement the Equality Act.
We have specialist expertise concerning the public sector equality duty: the duty to carry out public functions in a way that eliminates discrimination, advances equality of opportunity and fosters good community relations.
We have used the public sector equality duty in innovative ways including to challenge the closure of post offices; to ensure that banknotes have a female historical character on them; to force local authorities to re-think their policies on strip clubs; to challenge the use of military barracks to house those seeking asylum; and to challenge the Home Office’s policy of telling migrants to “go home or get arrested”. Our clients have brought cases that have often had a wide-ranging impact, for example a claim against London Councils, which succeeded in preserving funding for hundreds of voluntary sector projects across London, and a successful challenge that changed the law to allow heterosexual couples to enter into a civil partnership.
Relying on anti-discrimination legislation, we have helped service users successfully bring claims to protect the specialist services they rely on, for example, support for women fleeing domestic abuse, education services targeted at black and minoritised groups, and services run by and for people with learning disabilities. These claims include challenging consultations, procurement decisions, and decisions to end services.
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