Marianne’s areas of practice are Employment, Tax, Commercial Litigation, Professional Negligence, and Insurance & Reinsurance.
She is adept at advocacy and appears regularly in the Employment Tribunal, First-tier Tribunal (Tax), Employment Appeal Tribunal, Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber), and High Court. She appears frequently unled against considerably more senior counsel, including silks, at first instance and appellate levels. She is ranked in employment as an ‘Up and Coming’ junior by Chambers and Partners and a ‘rising star’ by Legal 500, which highlights that she is a “superb junior who is no doubt on her way to great achievements”.
Before coming to the Bar, Marianne worked for an MP in the House of Commons and for Hanover Communications, a public relations firm with expertise in public affairs consultancy.
In 2019, she was appointed to the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel (C Panel).
A prominent junior barrister in the employment law field, who is recognised for her experience in the tribunals and the High Court. She has excellent knowledge of strike injunctions, in addition to the full range of equality and discrimination matters. "She gains the client's trust very quickly, she is very measured, she understands the legal risks quickly, she is a strong advocate and she is a very skilled cross-examiner." "She is very commercial and practical and she marries that with technical knowledge." "She is very organised, and she is confident and clear in her communication." - Employment, Chambers UK Bar 2022.
"Marianne is responsive, personable, technically superb, and a massive star in the making. Clients love her and she is a pleasure to instruct." - Employment, Legal 500 2022.
"She's a superb junior with in-depth knowledge and the ability to quickly get to grips with a case and achieve the client's commercial and strategic aims." "She's really approachable and responsive, and is able to distil a whole heap of information into a really good case." Represented the respondent in Loveland and Others v British Airways, a large holiday pay claim involving 22,000 employees. - Employment, Chambers UK Bar 2021
‘A superb junior who is no doubt on her way to great achievements. Her in-depth knowledge and up-to-date advocacy on employment status issues is second-to-none at her level’ - Employment, Legal 500 2021.
Marianne is recognised as an ‘Up and Coming’ junior by Chambers and Partners and a ‘rising star’ by Legal 500 in employment.
She practises all areas of employment law and industrial relations. She has considerable experience of high-value and complex tribunal litigation acting for both claimants and respondents, as well as substantive appeals, in which she has appeared unled against leading employment silks. Her recent cases include claims relating to whistleblowing, discrimination, unfair dismissal, TUPE and collective issues. She also has experience of applications for interim relief.
Marianne has a keen interest in employment status and the gig economy, and has considerable experience of the area in the tax context (see below). Her “in-depth knowledge and up-to-date advocacy on employment status issues is second-to-none at her level”. Her advisory work in this area includes the IR35 reforms in the private sector, National Minimum Wage issues and claims arising out of the furlough scheme.
Marianne also has significant experience in the High Court. She specialises in industrial relations work and has experience of advising on and preparing for strike injunctions, replacement of striking workers with other staff, blacklisting and tactics for managing picket lines and protests. She also has experience in advising and acting for both claimants and defendants in disputes relating to restrictive covenants, including issues concerning use of confidential information by ex-employees and inducing breach of contract.
Recent work includes:
High Court
Employment Appeal Tribunal
Employment Tribunal
Marianne accepts instructions from both HMRC and taxpayers in a contentious and advisory capacity. She has significant tax litigation experience in the First-tier Tribunal (Tax), Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber), High Court and Court of Appeal, often appearing unled in complex appeals. Her practice is focused upon areas that cross over with her employment work, namely employment status and taxation of employment income, as well as residence and domicile matters.
She is currently instructed by HMRC as junior counsel to Akash Nawbatt QC (Devereux), Adam Tolley QC (Fountain Court Chambers) and Christopher Stone (Devereux), as well as being instructed as sole counsel in a number of high profile IR35 cases involving the media industry and public sector, in which she is able to draw upon her experience of employment status cases in the Employment Tribunal context (see above). In particular, she has acted in:
She also has experience of advising clients, including agencies and end-users, in preparing for IR35 reforms in the private sector.
Marianne has experience of very high value residence cases. She is presently instructed by HMRC as junior counsel to Akash Nawbatt QC and Christopher Stone concerning a high net worth individual, which raises discovery issues (Hargreaves v HMRC). An appeal will be heard in the Upper Tribunal in 2022.
She also has public law experience, having represented and advised HMRC in respect of judicial review proceedings brought in the Administrative Court in the tax context.
Marianne is regularly instructed in an advisory capacity and as an advocate in commercial disputes. Much of her commercial practice involves professional negligence and insurance work (see below). Her more general commercial matters include business, property, consumer and other contractual disputes in the county courts and High Court. This includes:
She has been also led on a variety of commercial cases and assisted members of chambers with international arbitrations and mediations. She also has experience of commercial injunctions. Notably, she assisted Shaen Catherwood in obtaining a without notice injunction (from Birss J) and a costs order on the indemnity basis (from Mann J) in the Chancery Division against an ex-director of a large company in Friendly Pensions Ltd v Austin.
Marianne has worked on a range of professional negligence disputes and has particular experience of claims against solicitors, barristers, accountants, conveyancers, valuers and insurance brokers. She provides letters of claim and responses, pleadings, and advises on all aspects of a dispute (including policy coverage issues).
Marianne is an adept litigator and is regularly instructed to appear in application hearings and CCMCs in professional negligence matters. She has experience of striking out and obtaining summary judgment in respect of a multi-million pound claim brought against a firm of solicitors. She was also instructed as a junior to Richard Harrison in a high value accountant’s negligence claim which raised complex points about accessory liability and unlawful means conspiracy.
As a pupil, Marianne assisted:
Marianne accepts instructions in insurance and reinsurance work. She has experience of both advisory and contentious work. She has been instructed to review commercial combined business insurance policies for multinational and FTSE 100 companies and brokers' agreements.
As a pupil to Richard Harrison, Marianne gained experience in cases involving:
In particular, she assisted him in respect of the construction of a professional indemnity policy in a dispute worth over £2 billion.
Marianne has a broad practice with a particular focus on Employment, Tax, Commercial Litigation, Professional Negligence, and Insurance & Reinsurance work.
She has experience assisting leading and senior counsel, in chambers, with an internal investigation into bullying and harassment complaints for a world leading research company. Marianne was instrumental in helping the smooth running of the process and conducted numerous interviews at the client’s offices which provided the basis of the investigation.
She also has significant experience of advising employers through the grievance process, including in respect of allegations of serious sexual misconduct.
ILS
ELA
ELBA
COMBAR
Appointed to the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel (C Panel) in 2019
LLM, specialising in Labour Law (Distinction), King's College London (2014)
GDL (Commendation) and BPTC (Very Competent), College of Law (2012-13)
BA, Philosophy, Politics and Economics (First Class Hons), University of Durham (2011)
Contributing editor to Discrimination Law (Bloomsbury Professional)
Sexual harassment in the workplace (PILJ (June 2018) 7-9)
Vicarious Liability: An Ever Expanding Concept? (ILJ (2016) 45 (4): 556-564)
Inner Temple Exhibition Award (2013)
BLS Debating Competition: Winner (2012)