Katy joined Matrix as a trainee in October 2020. In her first two seats she assisted in a wide range of public, employment, and equality matters. From April 2021, she will undertake a seat in competition and commercial law with Nicholas Gibson.
Public law
Katy’s first seat was with Sarah Hannett QC. Katy assisted in a variety of public, education, and equality matters including:
- Advising on numerous education discrimination matters, including a potential race discrimination and breach of contract claim against a school, and a disability discrimination claim in the First Tier Tribunal.
- A public law challenge concerning ultra vires contracts made in another jurisdiction, including an issue concerning the protection of property under the ECHR.
- Advising an NGO on a policy challenge concerning freedom of expression and victimisation.
- Advising on an Article 6 issue in relation to an appeal from conviction.
Employment law
Katy’s second seat was in employment and equality law, under the supervision of Claire Darwin. Katy has assisted in numerous employment matters, both at first instance and on appeal. For example:
- Unfair dismissal (including redundancy), discrimination claims (sex, disability, race, and religion), equal pay, and whistleblowing cases.
- Appeals on indirect sex discrimination and hypothetical group disadvantage, worker status after the Supreme Court’s judgment in Uber, and the correct approach to postponements under the amended ET Procedure Rules.
- Various matters involving TUPE.
Prior experience
Prior to joining Matrix, Katy was Judicial Assistant to Lord Justice Simon in the Court of Appeal where she worked on a variety of public, commercial, immigration, and criminal appeals. Katy was also a paralegal at Simpson Millar LLP in the education, community care, and public law team. Alongside studying for the BPTC, Katy spent a year working at Ofsted, where she assisted with preparation for several investigations in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
Katy also worked at the Public Law Project as a Research Fellow, where her work focused on the relationship between judicial review, evidence, and technology. She has published in Public Law on the relationship between public law and automated decision-making (‘Judicial review evidence in the era of the digital state’ Public Law (2020), Oct, 740-760).
Qualifications
Katy’s BPTC was supported by five scholarships, including the Bedingfield Scholarship from Gray’s Inn, and advocacy and academic excellence scholarships from BPP University. She holds a BA Jurisprudence (First Class) and Bachelor of Civil Law (with Distinction) from the University of Oxford. At Oxford, Katy was an academic excellence scholar of New College and was awarded the Law Faculty Prize for the BCL Private Law and Fundamental Rights module.