Roll on Friday
An associate with ADHD and autism has claimed that Trowers & Hamlins unfairly dismissed her and subjected her to disability discrimination.
***** ****** is suing the firm for constructive unfair dismissal, discrimination on the grounds of disability, a failure to make reasonable adjustments, disability related harassment, victimisation, and unlawful deductions from wages.
Trowers initially sought to challenge ****** claim that she was disabled, but at a preliminary hearing last year it conceded that she was.
In a judgment dealing with requests to amend her claim, Employment Judge Danvers permitted ****** to add an allegation that Trowers took responses she gave in meetings about her conduct and used them against her in its “alleged performance and (mis)conduct processes”, when she didn’t appreciate at the time that the meetings “were supposed to be formal”.
The meetings were called to address ******** “work performance and her (alleged) acts of gross misconduct” which related to “time recording issues” in August and September 2023.
******** ADHD, autism and long-term anxiety meant that she “found these meetings distressing when she did not know what was going to be discussed in each meeting”, and she “found it difficult to articulate herself well”, according to her claim.
****** also sought to amend her claim to state that, by reporting her to the SRA, Trowers had victimised and committed disability discrimination against her.
But the judge rejected the request and her barrister’s attempt to draw a distinction between typical reports to the SRA and Trowers’ report on ******, which the firm submitted in a non-standard way out of a consideration for her mental health.
“We are sending to you a report concerning an individual who we suspect may have acted in breach of the honesty provisions”, Trowers told the SRA.
“We are sending this report to you, rather than through the reporting e-mail, as the individual is fairly vulnerable and we want to do all that we can to protect their mental health and wellbeing… We have left the report anonymous, however, to try to protect them”, it stated.
The judge agreed with Trowers that reporting ****** to the SRA was covered by the principle of immunity for judicial proceedings.
A spokesperson for Trowers & Hamlins said, “Given the proceedings are ongoing, we are unable to comment”.
******, who joined the Exeter office of Trowers as a litigation associate after moving from the family team at Ashfords in 2022, could not be reached for comment.
