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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Catherine Casserley (Chair)
Cathy is a barrister of 16 years call previously employed by the Disability Rights Commission as Senior Legislation Adviser. She is now practising at Cloisters chambers.
Cathy has considerable experience in discrimination law and policy, gained as a result of work not only at the DRC but also at the Royal National Institute of the Blind and also as a trade union legal officer.
Cathy has been on the executive committee for four years, and in that time has contributed to DLA Briefings and a variety of consultation responses, including the Discrimination Law Review.
The coming year will see significant challenges for discrimination law – the reduction in legal aid and its impact on discrimination cases, and the outcome of the discrimination law review, with a possible bill in November. As Chair, Cathy hopes to ensure that DLA is able to monitor the situation regarding legal aid and that it is a significant contributor to the forthcoming legislation.
Elaine Banton (Treasurer)
Elaine was called to the Bar in 1996 and have practised as a barrister exclusively in employment, discrimination and human rights for the past 10 years. She is co-author of the chapter on Human Rights and Employment Law for Tolley’s Employment Law loose-leaf publication. Elaine speaks and writes regularly in the fields of employment and discrimination law. She is currently Treasurer of the Discrimination Law Association and will continue to strive to improve the financial position of the DLA and take an active part on the EC as she has done in the past.
Nick Bone (Director)
Nick became a DLA director in 2006. His particular area of interest is race discrimination, and he has dealt with some noteable cases e.g Chief Constable of the Kent Constabulary –v- Kufeji (2001) UKEAT/1135/00 (4 May 2001) and Hassan –v- Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospital NHS Trust (2006) EWHC (QB) (29 September 2006).
In early 2008, Nick will moving from Geogre Green Solicitors to Harvey Ingram LLP to head up their Birmingham Employment Team.
Ulele Burnham (Director)
Ulele is a barrister practising in employment, discrimination and mental health law and has served on the EC of the DLA both as Chair and as a Director. She has been involved in much of the DLA’s consultative work on the DLR, the Equalities Review and other proposals for legislative change in the field of equality law (of which there have been many) made by the incumbent government. Much of the DLA’s policy work is inextricably linked to her practice as a barrister and accords with her commitment to the promotion of equality.
Tufyal Choudhury (Director)
Tufyal’s main areas of interest are in religious and racial discrimination, European and international discrimination law and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. In the past year, as Chair of the DLA Tufyal was involved in all aspects of the DLA’s work, including preparing the response to the DLR. Tufyal has represented the DLA at the Equality and Diversity Forum and at the UK Race Equality Network.
Barbara Cohen (Director)
Barbara works on discrimination law across the EU. Previously she was CRE head of legal policy. Barbara has worked with the old and new equality commissions and UK statutory and voluntary bodies. Outside the UK she is involved in developing equality laws and enabling lawyers, NGOs and equality bodies to use their laws.
.Barbara regards the coming year as critical against the background of a new equality act. She believes that it will take a huge effort by DLA members through their organisations to secure progressive, effective equality legislation.
Kiran Daurka (Director)
Kiran has been working in the area of employment discrimination for 4 years. In May 2006, she joined Russell Jones & Walker to act exclusively for individuals with employment claims.
Kiran's main interest within the field of discrimination is mental health and its impact within employment. She is currently running a workshop for mental health charities in order to explore the real issues facing people with mental health conditions who are either in employment, or trying to find employment. She is keen to encourage a debate about this issue with a view to challenging whether existing discrimination legislation offers adequate protection to society's most excluded group of people.
Sophie Garner (Director)
Sophie has been on the DLA executive committee for 2 years and as one of the few members of the committee from outside London, hopes that her presence has been of benefit for no other reason than to remind everyone that there is life outside the capital.
Sophie practices exclusively in employment law, and undertakes work in all areas of discrimination law. She has worked on a number of charity committees and is experienced in the areas of corporate and charitable governance.
Tamara Lewis (Director)
Tamara has been a member of the EC for the last 3 years. She co-wrote the DLA’s response to the draft Age Regulations, and has also inputed into the DLA’s responses to consultation on the statutory dispute resolution procedures; the Discrimination Law Review; protection for multiple discrimination; and the effect of LSC cuts on discrimination cases.
Tamara has been an employment solicitor at Central London Law Centre specialising in all areas of discrimination law – particularly race and disability discrimination - for nearly 20 years. Her work is a mixture of casework, advice and support, training and publications, all aimed at increasing the recognition and take up of discrimination cases across the board.
Tamara also designs and carries out training in the voluntary and union sectors on recognising and taking up the full range of discrimination cases. She writes specialist practical publications on discrimination casework, updates the precedent section of the EOC’s legal website,a dn also co-authors the 6-monthly employment law update in the Legal Action magazine, writing the discrimination section. Tamara is author of LAG’s Employment Law: an adviser’s handbook.
Gay Moon (Director)
Gay has been on the executive committee and Editor of the DLA Briefings for the last eight years. Although she has now stood down as the Briefings editor, she will continue to take an active role in the running of the DLA.
Gay believes that the coming year will, once again, be an important year for discrimination law as we need to ensure that the recommendations of the Discrimination Law Review are improved and built on. It is important that the DLA takes an active role in this.
Juliette Nash (Director)
Juliette Nash has been on the EC since 2003. She is an employment and discrimination solicitor at North Kensington Law Centre. She has very wide experience in discrimination law in the not for profit sector. She has particular experience and interest in Goods, Facilities and Services cases. She has been responsible for the Practitioner Group Meetings since 2003 and is more than happy to continue to do so. She is also particularly concerned about access to justice – more than ever following the drastic cuts in Legal Services Commission funding of discrimination work - and the situation of unrepresented claimants.
Shah Qureshi (Director)
Shah is head of Employment and Discrimination at Webster Dixon Solicitors, an employee focussed firm in London. He is also a part-time lecturer at London Metropolitan University. He has a particular interest in race issues and is a director of CAPA Civil Rights, a community based organisation in East London. He also undertakes work in other areas of discrimination and is a member of the EOC’s panel of solicitors.
He has served on the DLA’s EC for the past year and has been involved in its activities including the DLA’s submissions to the Discrimination Law Review, responding to the proposed legal aid reform under the Carter Report and the response to consultation on the statutory dispute resolution procedures.
Michael Reed (Director)
Michael is the Employment Caseworker at the Free Representation Unit, where he oversees volunteers conducting approximately 350 cases in the tribunals each year, as well as managing my own caseload. Michael is also the co-author of Employment Tribunal Claims: Tactics and Precedents, published by LAG and the accompanying blog, etclaims.co.uk.
His principal interest is in the practice of discrimination law in the employment context. This year he will also continue to assist with the Association’s Practitioner Group Meetings as well as in other areas.
Eleanor Williams (Director)
Eleanor Williams is a Solicitor in the firm of Darwin Gray in Cardiff. She does uniquely discrimination law work with a knish practice within disability discrimination. She acts for both Respondents and Claimants. She read law at University College Oxford and subsequently completed an LLM in Industrial Relations at Leicester University.
She has given talks for the House of Lords the UN and the Industrial Law Society on disability discrimination. She has published articles in ELA briefing. She is the Equal Opportunities Officer for the Confederation of South Wales Law Societies. She is a Director of the charity RADAR. She is an Associate of Churchill, Minty and Friend Disability Consultants and an Associate of the Employers Forum on Disability. She is a committee member of the EHRC in Wales.
Eleanor is a guest lecturer at Cardiff University and at Sheffield Hallam University. She is a visiting lecturer at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales where she lectures on Diversity to post graduate students in French.
She delivers anti discrimination training for Altior Training Consultancy to Solicitors and HR professionals.