The Panel: Catherine Atkinson, Deeba Syed, Ava Etamadzadeh and Jess Phillips MP SLL and Fabian Society members met on the evening of Monday 2 July to discuss policy ideas to combat and investigate sexual harassment both as a future Labour government. SLL Secretary, employment barrister and PPC for Erewash, Catherine Atkinson, opened the meeting by…

Society of Labour Lawyers’ Employment Group met on the top floor of Congress House on 30 May 2018 to hear from guest speaker SHANTHA DAVID of UNISON, leader of their triumphant 2017 case (transcript here).  Labour had a manifesto pledge to abolish tribunal fees in May 2017. Only 2 months later the Supreme Court struck them…

The new Labour City Lawyers network was launched on Wednesday 21 March 2018. Over 20 SLL members joined Jonathan Reynolds MP, the shadow City minister, for a round-table discussion. On Brexit, attendees were keen to obtain assurances on maintaining passporting rights for the financial services. Jonathan was keen to stress that Labour cannot reject the…

SLL co-hosted an event at the House of Commons on 27 March 2018 with Labour Business to discuss the outsourcing of public services (which is coming under greater media and public scrutiny than ever with expensive private sector failures) and Private Finance Initiatives (PFI), a topic of particular importance to Labour, as our current policy…

Young Labour Lawyers’ AGM took place on Monday night, 12 March 2018, at Committee Room 12 in the Houses of Parliament.  In her Chair’s report, Deeba Syed encouraged members to get involved with the SLL groups in the year ahead. She reviewed the year: from our well-attended Conference Event and annual dinner with Gloria de…

A History of the Society of Labour Lawyers, as delivered by Sir Ross Cranston at the Society’s Annual General Meeting on 4 December 2017 in his speech on ‘…And Access to Justice’ The AGM is a good time to reflect on the history, achievements and mission of the Society of Labour Lawyers, particularly as we…

This year, the Society of Labour Lawyers held an exciting programme of fringe events which brought in voices from across the legal profession and labour movement. On Sunday night, we heard from Baroness Shami Chakrabarti (Shadow Attorney General), Nick Thomas-Symonds MP (Shadow Solicitor General), Baroness Diane Hayter (Shadow Spokesperson for Exiting the EU), Christina Blacklaws…

The Society of Labour Lawyers’ Housing Sub-Group hosted a well-attended round-table discussion on Wednesday 11th October, chaired by Liz Davies and featuring Emma Dent-Coad MP, discussing the practical, political and legal routes to putting empty homes to good use.  First, we heard from John Hobson QC of Landmark Chambers, who provided us with a legal…