Laurene acts in the areas of equality law, employment, human rights, personal injury and clinical negligence.

Employment

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

She has represented both claimants and respondents in the EAT including around 50 claimants in a group claim.

Laurene has also acted in large group claims. She was one of 3 counsel representing nearly 10,000 claimants in a successful discrimination and victimisation claim, reported by Channel 4.

She has experience in equal pay claims including defining work of ‘equal value’, and the material factor defence.

Discrimination

Laurene acts in claims for discrimination in services and housing as well as discrimination at work. This includes failure to make adjustments for disabled service users, discriminatory tenancy conditions and unequal access to services.

Many of Laurene’s clients are people living with disabilities, including invisible disabilities and disabilities made worse by working conditions.

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

Human rights & civil liberties

Laurene welcomes instructions in actions against the police, especially those involving equality and human rights breaches. She has acted for victims of police violence and for workers, students, protesters, charity trustees and elected officials who were mistreated for expressing a political belief and/or exercising their right to freedom of speech and assembly.

She successfully represented the claimant in a landmark action against the police where the Court found that the police acted unconstitutionally and oppressively in arresting a protester expressing antizionist views.

Personal injury and clinical negligence

Laurene regularly acts and advises in multi-track clinical negligence claims. This has included complex birth cases where liability is disputed, and infant claims with complex future loss and care costs calculations.

She also represents workers in personal injury claims against their employer, including for psychiatric injury as well as harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Investigations & awareness training

Laurene is regularly instructed to investigate grievances / whistleblowing complaints in NGOs, universities, trade unions and multinationals.

She also offers bespoke equality training including on the duty to prevent sexual harassment at work.

Public law

Laurene has advised on judicial reviews with discrimination and human rights elements, and was on the counsel team of the Infected Blood Inquiry. She also undertook work for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and Covid-19 inquiry.