Tessa Hetherington's principal areas of work are public law (including education, health, community care and environmental law), human rights, employment, and discrimination and equality law.

Tessa does a wide range of public law work, including many cases involving human rights and EC law elements. She has appeared alone in the High Court in judicial review proceedings, and as a junior in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords. Tessa was instructed by Liberty and JUSTICE (along with Rabinder Singh QC and Raza Husain) to intervene in the House of Lords in R (Limbuela, Tesema and Adam) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the correct analysis of Article 3 ECHR in the context of support for destitute asylum seekers.

Tessa has a strong interest in education law, and has been instructed in a wide variety of areas, including SENDIST appeals and judicial reviews concerning special educational needs and school re-organisation. Tessa appeared (with David Wolfe) in the first judicial review to examine the process of setting up Academy schools, and has been instructed in a number of other cases involving Academies. An article she wrote with Tom Linden on Article 9 ECHR in schools and the Begum case was cited by Lord Bingham in his judgment in the case.

Tessa has broad experience of employment work, including unfair dismissal, discrimination, TUPE and trade union recognition. She regularly appears in employment tribunals and has delivered training sessions on disability discrimination and the territorial effect of employment legislation. Tessa has a particular interest in discrimination and equality matters, and has been involved in cases dealing with these issues both in and outside the employment field.

Tessa also has a keen interest in media and information law, having spent much of her time at Harvard studying free speech and associated issues.

Tessa studied law at Cambridge, taking options including Administrative Law, Labour Law, Medical Law and Human Rights. She was awarded a first class degree, the second highest in her year, in 2001. She then completed a Masters in Law at Harvard in 2003, studying US Constitutional and Administrative Law, South African Constitutional Law, Gender Law and Policy, Education Law and Psychiatry and Law, and writing her independent paper on government subsidisation of free speech. Tessa completed the Bar Vocational Course in 2004, ranking fourth in her year with the grade of Outstanding.

Tessa became a full member of Matrix in October 2005, on completion of her traineeship. During her traineeship she was supervised by David Wolfe, Tom Linden, James Laddie and Karon Monaghan.

For a printable version (.pdf) of Tessa Hetherington's CV, please download from here.

If you would like any further information regarding Tessa Hetherington's practice, please contact her Practice Team, or call +44 (0)20 7404 3447.