Darryl Hutcheon

Contact Darryl: darrylhutcheon@matrixlaw.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7404 3447

Contact Darryl's Practice Team (Team M): TeamM@matrixlaw.co.uk

Darryl’s practice focuses on employment law, discrimination law, public law, civil claims and media and information claims. Darryl is ranked as a “Leading Junior” in Employment Law and in Administrative Law and Human Rights.

Employment and discrimination law

Darryl is regularly instructed as sole counsel for appeals, multi-day trials and preliminary hearings in claims spanning the full range of employment litigation, from tribunal discrimination and whistleblowing claims to High Court restrictive covenant and other contract matters. He is regularly instructed in group and strategic litigation supported by leading UK trade unions. He has specific expertise in employment cases which raise conflict of laws, human rights and privacy issues.

Darryl also regularly acts in non-employment discrimination claims, including County Court Equality Act actions and civil and judicial review claims raising Article 14 ECHR issues (see below).

Recent/ongoing employment cases include:

• Evrythng Ltd v Gilbert-Rolfe [2023] IRLR 280 – acting for senior employee successfully resisting application for interim injunctions in case involving conflicts between covenants contained in employment contracts and shareholder agreements
• Lloyd v Elmhurst School Ltd [2022] EAT 169 – acting for successful claimant in appeal raising novel issues regarding the application of National Minimum Wage legislation to teaching assistants
• Chaudhry v Cerberus Service Security and Monitoring Services Ltd [2022] EAT 172 – acting for successful claimant in EAT appeal relating to applicable principles for ETs dealing with early applications to amend claims
• X v Government Department – acting for claimant civil servant in high-profile whistleblowing claim relating to disclosures about the UK Government’s handling of withdrawal from Afghanistan (with Gavin Millar KC)
• Term Time Workers v Various Respondents – acting for multiple claimant groups in several tranches of tribunal litigation relating to treatment of term-time workers employed in schools, in claims relating to unlawful deductions and part-time worker discrimination
• Firm A v Firm B – acting for claimant firm in long-running High Court litigation relating to alleged violations of restrictive covenants by high-profile London solicitor (with Gavin Millar KC) (settled late 2022)
• Arian v Spitalfields Practice [2022] EAT 67 – acting for appellant in successful EAT appeal relating to exclusion of whistleblowing claims from ET litigation
• Adams v Cornerstone – acting for group of more than 400 claimants in trade union inducement action (see e.g. EAT judgment on preliminary issues [2021] UKEATS/0015/20)
• X v Service Company – acting for claimant in ET litigation raising wide-ranging issues relating to ill health policies applied in low-paid factory work
• Professor D Williams v Betsi Cadwaladr University LHB – acting for claimant surgeon in high-profile ET claim relating to controversial NHS reorganisation in north Wales
• Acting for numerous senior executives and senior managers in High Court and ET employment litigation

Judicial review

Darryl has an equally active public law practice. He is frequently instructed both led and as sole counsel in first instance and appellate judicial review proceedings. Darryl’s areas of particular expertise include judicial review litigation in the fields of (i) social security (ii) education (iii) terrorism and national security (iv) prison and (v) police matters. He is regularly instructed in “public interest” judicial review challenges relating to policies or practices which affect large numbers of people.

Recent/ongoing cases include:

• R (BK) v (1) SSWP and (2) SSHD [2023] EWHC 378 (KB) – acting for claimant in judicial review challenge to the treatment of victims of domestic violence seeking urgent access to Universal Credit (with Zoe Leventhal KC)
• QX v SSHD [2022] EWCA Civ 1541 – acting for claimant in first substantive challenge to a Temporary Exclusion Order under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (with Dan Squires KC)
• R (Bui & Onakoya) v SSWP [2022] UKUT 189 (AAC) – acting for claimant in challenge to SSWP policy withholding Universal Credit and advance payments from claimants without national insurance numbers (with Richard Drabble KC)
• R (AB, F and ors) v SSWP [2022] PTSR 1092 – acting for claimant in challenge to rules governing the movement of severely disabled claimants from legacy benefits to Universal Credit (with Zoe Leventhal KC)
• R (Jan) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2022] EWHC 446 (Admin) – acting for claimant in judicial review challenge relating to the applicable standard of review in statutory police complaints process
• R (Newsquest Media Group) v Police Misconduct Tribunal [2022] EWHC 299 (Admin) – acting for interested party in judicial review proceedings relating to privacy orders made in the course of police misconduct proceedings
• R (X) v (1) B Police Force and (2) College of Policing – acting for claimant in wide-ranging judicial review challenging police vetting decisions and national guidance relating to vetting process (with Hugh Southey KC)
• R (ZB) v Royal Parks – acting for claimant in judicial review discrimination challenge brought by trade union members relating to pay disparities between in-house and outsourced workers
• R (NUJ) v HM Treasury – acting for claimant trade union and individual claimants challenging the exclusion of freelance workers from the Government’s key Coronavirus support scheme for self-employed people
• R (UC Claimants) v SSWP – acting for claimants in challenge to failure to amend benefit cap following introduction of COVID-era Universal Credit allowances

Civil claims / claims against public authorities

Darryl acts in High Court and County Court civil litigation raising public law and human rights law issues. He has particular expertise in civil actions relating to the Human Rights Act 1998, discrimination, data breaches, police and false imprisonment actions and actions relating to prisoners.

Many of Darryl’s instructions in this area have been in complex and high-profile cases. For example, he was part of the counsel team (led by Phillippa Kaufmann KC) involved in the Iraqi Civilian Litigation in which large numbers of Iraqi civilians brought claims in England alleging that they were subjected to torture and other human rights abuses at the hands of US and UK soldiers during the occupation of Iraq. More recently he has been instructed by several clients (including human rights activists, dissidents and journalists) whose personal devices have been targeted by Pegasus spyware and he has advised Extinction Rebellion activists arrested and detained in the course of climate protests.

For recent examples of successful trial outcomes in civil actions see:

• Murray v Mabrouk [2021] EWHC 3461 (QB) – acting for claimant in claim relating to the involvement of Libyan national in the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 (led by Phillippa Kaufmann KC)
• Richmond v Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (Central London County Court, judgment of 7 April 2021) – acted for successful claimant, a political activist, awarded aggravated and exemplary damages after establishing assault by a Metropolitan Police officer following 2016 May Day demonstration
• LFH v Blackpool Borough Council and ors (Manchester County Court, judgment of 1 April 2021) – acting for claimants in action alleging EA 2010 and HRA 1998 violations in relation to arrangements for large-scale religious festival in Blackpool (led by Aidan O’Neill KC)

Media and information law

Darryl regularly advises and appears in cases relating to media, information and privacy issues, especially where they overlap with human rights issues. Notable instructions in this area include:

• Pegasus spyware privacy actions – advising several claimants on privacy claims against foreign states arising out of hacking of their devices using sophisticated spyware
• Ware v French – High Court libel proceedings relating to journalistic coverage of the Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis (led by Hugh Tomlinson KC)
• Wright v Granath – High Court libel proceedings relating to the identity of the founder of online cryptocurrency Bitcoin (led by Hugh Tomlinson KC)
• Potanina v Potanin – Family Court proceedings raising issues about confidentiality and non-disclosure orders and scope of Court power to make findings as to foreign law in absence of evidence on the subject (led by Charles Howard KC)
• Fallows v News Group Newspapers – Employment Appeal Tribunal case relating to scope of Tribunal power to make restricted reporting orders (led by Gavin Millar KC)

Education and background

• BA (Hons) Law, University of Cambridge (2011) – First Class (ranked 3^rd in year group)
• Bachelor of Civil Law, University of Oxford (2012) – Distinction (won the John Morris Prize for best performance in Conflict of Laws; obtained best mark in three out of four courses)
• Eldon Scholar, University of Oxford (2014) – awarded to “the most promising Oxford graduate embarking on a career at the Bar”

Prior to coming to the Bar Darryl worked for the International Labour Organisation, for Ergon Associates (a labour and human rights consultancy based in London) and as a Teaching Fellow in Conflict of Laws at University College London.

Between 2018 and 2019 Darryl took an extended sabbatical from practice and spent a year working in north Africa in refugee advocacy.

Darryl speaks an advanced level of French and conversational Arabic.

Darryl is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. In order to provide legal services to his clients, including advice and representation services, he needs to collect and hold personal data. This includes his client’s personal data and the personal data of others who feature in the matters in respect of which he is instructed. To view Darryl’s privacy notice in full, please see here.