Elizabeth Hodgetts

St Philips Chambers - Employment Law

Profile

Elizabeth Hodgetts has been consistently ranked as a Leading Junior in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 legal directories since 2008; she is described as “an outstanding practitioner” with “a razor-sharp mind”, an “outstanding” knowledge of employment law, and “a formidable cross-examination style you don’t want to be on the receiving end of”. Elizabeth was appointed to the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel to the Crown in 2012, and reappointed to the ‘A’ Panel in 2018 and again in 2023. She is a sought-after advocate for high value and complex employment cases. Her cases in the last 12 months include:

– Advising and representing a local authority, successfully defending claims of failure to make reasonable adjustments and constructive dismissal arising out of the implementation of a new structure and job roles which the claimant, who had an arm amputation, asserted would result in his being required to do more computer work

– Advising and representing a trade union, successfully defending claims of detriments because of protected disclosures and constructive dismissal arising from an instruction to return to the office following the pandemic lockdown

– Advising and representing a government agency, successfully defending kitchen-sink claims of disability and race discrimination and victimisation, in respect of the refusal to permit working from home

– Advising and representing a fire service, successfully defending claims by a group of firefighters of unfair and wrongful dismissal following the disclosure of posts made on a WhatsApp group. The issues included whether the claimants’ Article 8 ECHR rights were engaged