Anita acted for a BAME lawyer in a large city law firm. She was a working mother of two young children. She was subjected to pregnancy, sex and race discrimination and harassment. Her partners treated her less favourably each time she returned from maternity leave. They did not give her the best work, some of the partners would not work with her, and they did not allow her to go on courses or supervise other lawyers, all necessary requirements that she needed to be able to do to progress to partnership. She agreed to work four days a week, but the partners continued to set her unrealistic deadlines that required her to work on her non-working day. Clearly they were setting her up to fail. Our client went off sick and resigned.
Claims were brought in the Employment Tribunals for sex, pregnancy, maternity and race discrimination and harassment, as well as constructive unfair dismissal and personal injury. The law firm did not want to negotiate and fought the case, trying to get some of her claims struck out. They failed. Finally, they made the first approach to settle the case after the parties had exchanged documents relevant to the issues in the claim. She received a substantial settlement in consideration for which she agreed not to pursue her tribunal claims.
