Allison Bailey v Stonewall - Employment Tribunal hearing Thread 18

[ickky]

The Tribunal started on 25th April, witness testimony concluded on the 26th May. Closing arguments for council was on the 20th June.

There was 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 )
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 = Judge Goodman, Mr M. Reuby and Ms Darmas

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

Thread 12 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4555687-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-12

Thread 13 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4556235-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-13

Thread 14 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4556407-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-14

Thread 15 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4556803-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-15

Thread 16 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4557036-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-16

Thread 17 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4561850-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-17

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)
David Renton - barrister at GCC (20 May, 25 May)
Marc Willers - Barrister at GCC (23 May)
Stephen Clark - Barrister at GCC (23 May)
Liz Davies - Barrister at GCC (23 May)
Cathryn McGahey - Bar Council Ethics Committee's VC (24 May)
Tom Wainwright - Barrister at GCC (24 May)
Colin Cook - Head clerk at GCC (24 May)
David de Menezes - GCC, Head of Marketing (25 May)
Kathryn Cronin - barrister at GCC (25 May)
Michelle Brewer - barrister at GCC at time, now left and a judge (26 May)
Stephanie Harrison - joint head of chambers (26 May)
Closing arguments for AB, GCC, and SW (20 June)

Allison Bailey's

Witness Statement

allisonbailey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Witness-Statement-of-Allison-Bailey.pdf

Supplementary Statement

allisonbailey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/C-Supplementary-Witness-Statement.pdf

Closing Statement

allisonbailey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CLOSING-SUBMISSIONS-FINAL.pdf

The flip side could be that the discrimination & victimisation was so egregious & blatant it's a slam dunk?

<optimistic>

😬🤞🤞🤞

I think it being so quick might mean bad news, but fingers crossed for AB, who was incredible win or lose.

They definitely treated her poorly because of her beliefs but I wonder if the key detriments will be proven given the fact that she kept her job.

I worry about this. There was such a lot of evidence that it is hard to believe they could have had time to synthesise it all, which means it may be being decided on a small point in respect of which there was no need to deeply consider the wider issues/evidence. Fingers crossed.

:( I'm thinking about how the clerks were rather convincing witnesses, pretty much the only ones on the GCC side.

Does Allison already know the outcome? I don't know why I even want to know that, except I'd like to wish her luck if she's reading.

Ooooo judgement imminent. Have everything crossed for her.

Oh blimey I can't bear it. I can't contemplate the crowing that would come if she were to lose. Win or lose, it will be painted as a loss for her.

I hate suspense.

I think they do know the outcome in advance so they have time to formulate a response and get their faces straight, but it's the strictest ever embargo on revealing the outcome before it is handed down.

Whatever the judgement, AB's case exposed the dubious beliefs of this ideology and forced them to verbalise their 'thinking' out loud. Beyond the irrational beliefs, we learned of the spying, denouncement by kangaroo court and the chilling effect on people who have mainstream views on the existence and immutability of biological sex. Homophobic views towards lesbians dressed up as something else.

So much in this ideology was exposed. Everything you thought it was, said out loud.

(p.s. still obviously keeping everything crossed).

I think it was clear the clerks didn’t subject her to any financial detriment, but that doesn’t mean the way she was publicly treated didn’t have an impact on her earnings. It was very obvious that GCC defended other barristers in that set against similar insinuations.

Not similar - similarly controversial. The difference here was the nature of the ‘allegations’ against her.

Good luck Allison

Ooh, please let it be good news!

Oh boy

sleepless night and very long morning ahead

On the offchance that Allison reads these threads I'd just like to state that, win or lose, I consider my contribution to the crowdfunder to be money extremely well spent. I'm both grateful and proud to have been able to be even the tiniest part of her action.

I think they do know the outcome in advance so they have time to formulate a response and get their faces straight, but it's the strictest ever embargo on revealing the outcome before it is handed down.

Maya had the result 60 mins before it was publicly published IIRC.

Fingers and toes crossed for Allison.

Agree to this.

Oh 100%! I donated small amounts each time as and when I could and it was totally worth it.

Agree to this also. :)

Ooohhhh....

Fingers are very crossed.

That said, I recently met an employment lawyers, who has been involved in one of the other cases and he was quite downbeat. Not because he did not want Allison to win, but because he thought it was a difficult case to make.

It is what it is. What Allison has done is bring a whole lot of sunlight to bear. Emotional support dogs, emotional support mums, cross-examination of the belief structure. The hope is that, regardless of outcome, employers think twice about blindly delegating their EDI policies to Stonewall.

That said, I recently met an employment lawyers, who has been involved in one of the other cases and he was quite downbeat. Not because he did not want Allison to win, but because he thought it was a difficult case to make.

I agree. I think those of us who followed it found Allison much more impressive than either Stonewall or GCC, but it's still immensely hard to prove that she lost money as a result of their behaviour.

It seemed fairly incontrovertible that her working environment became hostile, but I guess that doesn’t prove one of the detriments?

Wish I hadn't looked at this thread, I feel quite sick, please let it be a good outcome.

Many thanks and much respect to Allison whatever the decision.

100% agree too.

Keeping everything crossed for her but also worried that the quick judgement is due to a technicality that will be a problem. Still think that my donation was worth every penny

Totally agree. It's going to be a long and sleepless night for many of us. Keeping my fingers tightly crossed. Good luck Allison.

I can't bear it either. I am only guessing how judges work but perhaps the fact it was so high profile means she prioritised it. But realistically I think it's not great news. Still I'll be really interested to read the full judgement.