Photo of Louise Quigley

Louise Quigley

Year of call 2003, Inner Temple

empcom@9sjs.com  

Areas of Expertise
Employment, Special Education Needs

Employment: Band 1
"Louise is approachable and has a practical style and a high level of technical skill and knowledge. She gets quickly to the root of the problem and deals with it."
"Louise consistently demonstrates a great balance between empathy with individual clients, and tenacity in her approach to advocacy."
"Louise is great with clients and is able to present arguments succinctly."

Chambers and Partners 2024


Employment:
"Louise has significant experience in dealing with employment tribunal claims. She has a fantastic manner in tribunals, has a sharp mind, and is down to earth with the clients."

Legal 500 2024


Employment:
"Louise is an impressive advocate and maintains a good relationship with clients. Louise is approachable and willing to assist during the preparation of a case, which is invaluable, as not only can she provide specific advice on points of law and tactics, but it also helps establish a good rapport between Louise, the instructing solicitors and the client."

Legal 500 2023


Employment (Northern Bar):
"She has a very good client manner, and is commercial and very well prepared." "She is my barrister of choice every time because she is great with clients, always happy to go the extra mile, and has an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of employment law." "She is a fighter and you want her in your corner."

Chambers and Partners 2022


Employment:
"Very astute, gets to the heart of the legal issues very quickly. Also has a great grasp of the additional sensitivities in particular claims and gives practical and commercial recommendations to clients (rather than just focussing on the legal issues)."

Legal 500 2022


Employment (Northern Bar):
"She is tremendously impressive."

Chambers and Partners 2021


Employment (Northern Bar) Band 1
"Louise is technically excellent and has a real grasp of the issues. She is strong on technical points of law and she engages well with instructing lawyers and clients."

Chambers and Partners 2020


Employment: Leading Junior Band 2
"Extremely knowledgeable in all areas of employment law."

Legal 500 2020


Employment – ranked Tier 1
“A highly adept advocate who is a force to be reckoned with.”

Legal 500 2019


Employment – Northern (Bar): Leading Barrister (Band 1)
"Incredibly approachable, commercial and brilliant with clients."
"Extremely thorough."

Chambers and Partners UK Bar 2019


"She is pragmatic, very focused on the key points of any case and good with clients."

Chambers and Partners 2018


'She punches well above her weight.'

Legal 500, 2017


"Esteemed junior who is capable of handling a variety of employment matters, and particularly adept in whistle-blowing and maternity discrimination cases. 'Astute, personable and an excellent communicator.' 'She's very capable of distilling difficult legal issues into comprehensible language.'"

Chambers and Partners 2017


"A dedicated employment barrister, Louise Quigley is especially adept in matters of maternity discrimination and whistle-blowing, on which she is instructed by public sector organisations as well as high-level claimants and trade unions. She also handles harassment claims, contractual breaches and restrictive covenants. 'She gives very sensible and pragmatic advice.'"

Chambers and Partners 2016


PROFILE

Louise Quigley

Louise practices exclusively in Employment Law. She is a sought-after Junior handling cases at all levels. Louise is currently ranked as a Band 1 Employment Barristers in both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 having been recognised consistently as a leader in her field from the start of her career. She is recognised for her expertise in relation to disability discrimination, whistleblowing and maternity/pregnancy cases. She is regularly instructed by FTSE 100 companies, medium to large businesses, public sector clients such as local authorities and NHS trusts. Louise has significant experience acting for care sector clients and is adept at navigating the complex issues that can arise in such a setting.

In addition, she has a strong Claimant practice specialising in representing women who have suffered pregnancy and/or maternity discrimination. Louise works with the charity “Pregnant then Screwed”.

Louise compliments her employment practice by undertaking SENDIST and Upper Tribunal (Administrative) Chambers cases and acts for local authorities and Schools in civil discrimination cases.

She is an expert litigator recognised in both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners as a Leading Junior for her advocacy and advisory skills. Her most recent endorsements are as follows:

  • "She is a fighter and you want her in your corner." (Chambers and Partners 2022)
  • "She is my barrister of choice every time because she is great with clients, always happy to go the extra mile, and has an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of employment law." (Chambers and Partners 2022)
  • "She has a very good client manner, and is commercial and very well prepared." (Chambers and Partners 2022)
  • "Very astute, gets to the heart of the legal issues very quickly. Also has a great grasp of the additional sensitivities in particular claims and gives practical and commercial recommendations to clients (rather than just focussing on the legal issues)." (Legal 500, 2022)

NOTABLE CASES

  • Representing a leading UK Supermarket in its defence of allegations of disability discrimination.
  • Advising and Representing a Local Authority in respect of “term-time” holiday pay calculations involving hundreds of employees
  • Representing a Company in a claim for transgender discrimination arising out of the provision of PPE equipment and company uniform policy;
  • Representing a Company in its defence of allegations of disability and sex discrimination where the Claimant was terminally ill and had been dismissed for theft.
  • Successfully represented a Claimant against a US company claiming disability discrimination leading to a six figure award.
  • Advising and representing an agency nurse claiming pregnancy/maternity discrimination arising out of Covid-19 measures against both the agency and the NHS Trust.

APPEAL WORK

Louise has a busy appellate practice and frequently appears in the EAT in appeals where she was not instructed at first instance.

Recent instructions have included:

  • Successfully represented a Care Home Provider where the principles and evidence required to merit Polkey deductions was challenged
  • Represented a Local Authority in an appeal challenging a refusal to Reconsider a Judgement seven years after the conclusion of the trial based on false representations on disclosure

Previous appearances in the Employment Appeal Tribunal have resulted in reported cases in respect of employment status, inferences relevant to the burden of proof in discrimination cases and causation in remedy cases.

DIRECT ACCESS

Louise is accredited by the Bar Council to undertake direct public access work and has advised and represented a significant number of Companies and private individuals on that basis.

Appointments

Tribunal Judge in Health, Education and Social Care (2023)
Accredited Mediator

Associations

Employment Lawyer's Association
Industrial Law Society

Education

BA(Hons) Government and Law, University of Manchester
BVC, Manchester Metropolitan University

Prescribed Information

Miss Louise Quigley is a practising barrister, who is regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Details of information held by the BSB about Louise Quigley can be found here.

Miss Quigley's clerks will happily provide no obligation quotations for all legal services that she provides. Their contact details can be found here. It is most common for Miss Quigley to undertake Tribunal services and advisory work for a brief fee plus additional refresher days. For advisory work including paperwork and conferences it is most commonly charged at an hourly rate although fixed fees are available.  Miss Quigley will typically return paperwork within 10-14 days, however professional commitments, complexity and volume of documentation can affect these approximate timescales. With prior agreement, paperwork may be returned quicker.

Specialist Areas of Practice:

Employment

Special Education Needs

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Employment CV [PDF]

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