Sophia Berry

Sophia has appeared in important recent authorities on statutory employment law. She also has experience of running highly sensitive and confidential internal investigations and grievance and disciplinary proceedings for corporations.

Notable examples of Sophia’s statutory employment work include:

• Basfar v Wong– Sophia was instructed with Mohinderpal Sethi K.C. and Bláthnaid Breslin in the first case ever case to have been given leapfrog permission to appeal directly to the Supreme Court from the EAT. The case turned on the commercial exception to diplomatic immunity and whether it applied on the assumed facts of the employment tribunal claim.
• Dobson v 1) Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 2) Working Families (Intervenor)(UKEAT/0220/19/LA)– Sophia acted pro bono with Mohinderpal Sethi K.C. and Bianca Balmelli for a community nurse in an appeal to the EAT against the dismissal of her indirect sex discrimination and unfair dismissal claims. The appeal succeeded and established that employment tribunals are required to have regard to the “childcare disparity” in indirect sex discrimination claims. Sophia continues to represent the Claimant.
• Plaistow v Secretary of State for Justice– Sophia acted for a former prison officer at a remedy hearing dealing with complex quantum questions. The value of the Claimant’s award exceeds £1 million.
• Ms A v Targus Europe Ltd– Sophia succeeded in defending the respondent against claims of serious sexual harassment; sex, age and race discrimination and whistleblowing.
• Billing v DVSA– Sophia won a complex disability discrimination and unfair dismissal trial for a claimant against the DVSA including winning on claims of a failure to make reasonable adjustments and breach of s. 15 EqA.
• Edomobi v La Retraite RC Girls School (UKEAT 0180_16_1511) – Sophia successfully defended an important appeal relating to time limits in discrimination claims which is cited in both Harvey on Industrial Relations and Employment Law and the IDS Employment Law Handbook.
• Aniyameta v Compass Group (UKEAT/0017/15/DM)– Sophia acted pro bonofor the appellant and successfully overturned the first instance decision that went against her.
• Bethnal Green and Shoreditch Education Trust v Dippenaar (UKEAT/0064/15/JOJ) – Sophia and Adam Solomon K.C. represented a teacher in an appeal regarding indirect discrimination, bias, constructive unfair dismissal and the taxation of Employment Tribunal awards that has been widely reported on in the legal and educational press.

Sophia has 11 years of experience of advising on and conducting High Court employment litigation as sole and junior counsel and has undertaken similar work in the Bahamas. She has a broad experience of acting in cases involving employee competition and team moves as well as misuse of confidential information. She is also instructed in remuneration disputes where there are parallel or related proceedings in the Employment Tribunal. The Chambers and Partners 2021 directory commends her “strong command of commercial employment matters”.

Highlights of Sophia’s recent work in this area include

• Acting for a technology company, led by Gavin Mansfield K.C., to secure an interim injunction against a former employee who had breached a non-complete clause.
• Acting for an interdealer broker, led by Gavin Mansfield K.C., in a dispute arising out of the breach of a garden leave clause by a former employee.
• Marcura Equities FZE v Nisomar Ventures Ltd[2018] 2 Costs L.R. 227– acting for a Dubai corporation operating in the maritime industry in a dispute involving the misuse of confidential information by a competitor. Sophia advised on the matter from the institution of an application for interim injunctive relief to the successful costs hearing where Sophia was led by Adam Solomon K.C..
• Acting for an international media organisation against a former employee who had retained confidential information in proceedings before the High Court and Employment Tribunal.
• Acting for an insurance broker, led by Eleena Misra K.C., in an employee competition dispute against a former employee and their new employer.
• Advising claimants and defendants on making or resisting injunction applications and how to resolve such disputes satisfactorily before the institution of proceedings.

Sophia is an active member of the Littleton Partnership and LLP group and the APP and has been led in partnership and LLP cases by a number of leading silks including Gavin Mansfield K.C. and Adam Solomon K.C.. Her practice in this field has involved both classic Chancery disputes and partnership matters with an employment law dimension.

Highlights of Sophia’s recent contentious partnership and LLP work include:

• Acting on behalf of former LLP members in LCIA arbitrations arising from alleged breaches of their restrictive covenants and fiduciary duties and the misuse of confidential information belonging to the LLP.
• Acting for a partnership in an LCIA arbitration both to defend claims arising from the expulsion of a partner and to bring a complex cross-claim against the former partner.
• Assisting a petitioner in an unfair prejudice dispute between LLP members in the Companies Court.

Sophia has experience of undertaking internal investigations for employers including in law firms. She is currently working on the independent inquiry into antisemitism at Goldsmiths, University of London with Mohinderpal Sethi K.C.

Sophia’s commercial practice centres on contractual disputes, but also encompasses advising on directors’ duties, economic torts and insolvency.

Highlights of Sophia’s current and recent work in this area include:

• Acting as sole counsel for a marketing agency defending a claim for breach of contract in a 4 day multi-track trial held in the Central London County Court. Sophia successfully defended her client against the larger claim brought against it.
• Acting for a logistics provider pursuing a substantial debt in the High Court. This has involved drafting proceedings and pursuing summary judgment and disclosure applications on behalf of the client.
• Acting for a recruitment consultant suing a client for non-payment of an engagement fee in the County Court.
• Advising on an unfair prejudice petition in the Companies Court.
• Securing a sizeable security for costs order in the County Court.
• Securing a significant costs award in relation to a contested winding-up petition in the Companies Court.

Sophia has acted in a number of domestic partnership arbitrations (detailed above) and in an international commercial HKIAC arbitration.

As a solicitor at Linklaters, Sophia advised on ICC and LCIA arbitrations. She attained the highest mark of any student on the International Investment and Commercial Arbitration LLM course at King’s College London, competed in the Vis arbitration moot and has subsequently co-authored a book chapter on arbitration ethics with Lord Hacking published by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrator in its Liber Amicorum.

Sophia has acted for registrants from a range of professions in proceedings before their professional regulators. She has experience of interim order applications, final hearings and restorations.

Her recent work in this field includes representing two social workers in separate sets of proceedings before the Health and Care Professions Council. Sophia achieved excellent outcomes for both registrants – no interim order was imposed in one set of proceedings; and in the other, the registrant was found to have been impaired, but the Panel decided to take no further action against her and she was able to return to work immediately. Sophia has also been instructed in a High Court case by the Nursing & Midwifery Council; successfully represented a GP before their local health board; and advised a junior hospital doctor on another matter on a pro bono basis.