Allison Bailey v Stonewall - Employment Tribunal hearing Thread 12

[ickky]

The Tribunal started on 25th April at 10am. If you would like to view online you need to send a request for access as early as possible.

Send an email to

[email protected]

The subject heading of the email request should read

“MEDIA OR PUBLIC ACCESS REQUEST – Case number 2202172/2020 - Ms A Bailey – 25th April 2022.

Then ask for the pin for the online access.

You will be contacted with instructions on how to observe the hearing.

When joining the live tribunal please choose a non inflammatory/offensive name, everyone can see it in the chat - This is a court room, please behave accordingly.

The court chat function is there for official court purposes, not for observers, please don't use it unless you have a technical issue.

On the first page underneath where you put your screen name, select the video and mic that are not crossed out (top option), this is the courts vid and mic.
On the next page select NONE on the drop down windows for vid and mic, these are your own video and mic.

You must be muted so as to not disturb the hearing.

There is also live tweeting from

twitter.com/tribunaltweets

Abbreviations:
AB: Allison Bailey, claimant
BC: Ben Cooper QC, barrister for AB
SW = Stonewall Equality Limited (respondent 1)
IO = Ijeoma Omambala QC, senior counsel - barrister for SW
RW = Robin White junior counsel to SW - assisting IO
GC = Garden Court Chambers Limited (respondent 2) (GCC would be a better abbreviation)
AH = Andrew Hochhauser QC, senior counsel - barrister for GC
JR = Jane Russell junior counsel to GC - assisting AH
RM= Rajiv Menon QC & SH = Stephanie Harrison QC (jointly respondent 3 along with all members of GC except AB)
EJ = Employment Judge Goodman hearing the case
Panel = any one of the three panel members (EJ and two lay members)

Thread 1 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4529887-Allison-Bailey-v-Stonewall-Employment-Tribunal-hearing?

Thread 2 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4542466-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-2

Thread 3 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4545725-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-3

Thread 4 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4546945-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-4

Thread 5 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4548160-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-5

Thread 6 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4550451-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-6

Thread 7 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4551757-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-7

Thread 8 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4552521-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-8

Thread 9 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4553181-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-9

Thread 10 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4553754-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-10

Thread 11 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4555145-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-11

Allison Bailey - claimant (4-9, 11-13 May)

Witnesses for the claimant:

Dr Nicola Williams - Fair Play for Women (29 April)
Dr Judith Green - A Woman's Place (29 April)
Kate Barker - LGB Alliance (3 May)
Lisa-Marie Taylor - FiLiA (4 May)

Witnesses for the respondents:

Stephen Lue - barrister for GCC (3-4 May)
Zainab Al-Farabi - ex Stonewall (10 May)
Kirrin Medcalf - head of trans inclusion Stonewall (10 May)
Leslie Thomas - barrister at GCC (13 May)
Sanjay Sood Smith - Stonewall (16 May)
Shaan Knan - LGBT consortium - on STAG (16 May)
Rajiv Menon - joint head of chambers (16-17 May)
Maya Sikand - barrister at GCC (17-18 May)
Mia Hakl-Law - HR senior for GCC (18 May)
Judy Khan - barrister at GCC (19-20 May)
Charlie Tennent - clerk at GCC (20 May)
Luke Harvey - clerk at GCC (20 May)
Louise Hooper - Barrister at GCC (20 May)
Marc Willers - Barrister at GCC (23 May)
Stephen Clark - Barrister at GCC (23 May)
Liz Davies - Barrister at GCC (23 May)
Katherine McGahy (24 May)
Tom Wainwright - Barrister at GCC (24 May)

To come:

Colin Cook - clerk at GCC (24 May)
David de Menezes - GCC, Head of Marketing
David Renton - barrister at GCC (20 May, to continue on 25th May)
Kathryn Cronin - barrister at GCC
Stephanie Harrison - joint head of chambers
Michelle Brewer - barrister at GCC at time, now left and a judge.

Hawthorn effect in action - BC picking his nose on camera subconsciously.

Fortunately, CC seems to have started just saying "yes" to stuff instead of quibbling. Will it last?

Not sure if it's just his camera angle, but he seems to have a raised defiant chin now.

Query: CC is adamant that a short case can't block a barrister's diary, because he would move it if a better case came along. (None of the other clerks said that.)

AB, who had worked there 16(?) years, seems entirely oblivoius to this possiblity and mentions several times in her witness statement that she turned down short cases to keep her diary free for better cases

Isn't that proof that she was being clerked less favourably than at least some other barristers?

Not sure if it's just his camera angle, but he seems to have a raised defiant chin now.

I think it is to do with the angle of the camera on one screen and the height of the other screen he's reading from. I'd look the same right now if I were on camera cos my second screen is higher then the camera on my laptop.

I've just seen the last tribunal tweet from this mornings session:

"The EJ's cat made a brief on screen appearance during the morning's proceedings.
It did not speak or otherwise contribute so was not reported on"

I love those tweeters!

Why does AH want the 93 days split between keep free and holiday when AH said 5 months away in 2019? He didn't provide any split.

I think he's wearing varifocals or bifocals and he's trying to get his screen(s) in focus.

Do we think AH will now be furiously splitting KC days vs holiday days for redirect?

A clerk of 41(?) years standing swearing in front of the judge.
You could not make this up.
It's quite funny compared to the awfulness of the other witnesses though.

Reputational omnishambles for GCC. Stonewall gonna walk away from this.

One of the observers is called Verity Shambles.

She's not wrong!

CC is making it clear that it can be real battle of wills between a barrister and a senior clerk.

ickky I suspect he's suggesting that there's no clear distinction at all, and therefore there was no way for the clerks to tell that she was actually available - so the assumption is that she wasn't.

Is there anyway of being able to verify how many individual log ins there have been to observe this case?

This cannot be at all usual for an ET?

I wonder what the panel and others involved in ET normally are thinking about the unprecedented public interest?

Is he trying to argue that:
a) he didn't know that he could contact AB on holiday to see if she wanted a case, and
b) he contacted AB on holiday to see if she wanted a case
Because they seem to be contradictory to me.

Yes but it shows that despite having away days of similar lengths in 2017 and 2019, she suffered a loss of cases in 2019.

CC is beginning to sound confrontational/aggressive too, now. What is it with all these men?

He is contradicting himself now. Says I don't clerk juniors. Before he said I treat all GCC barristers equally.

CC is sounding weary/exasperated now!

He's saying LH wasn't assigned to clerk for AB when I'm sure LH's evidence said he was?

I'm trying to discount my own (absolutely massive) bias, but I think he is sounding less convincing by the second.

I've been confused by that statement the whole time.

Regardless of all the changes in 2019, AB was still the one with the lowest workload.

I love how BC just completely ignores a witness's answer if it isn't something he likes!

I somehow managed to find the replies & one was, 'It was on mewt'.😁

He sounds less convincing now, but not sure it's enough. Proving it is so difficult.