Looking at those pitiful photographs of Baby P makes armchair whistleblowers
of us all. However, you only have to look at what happened to Nevres Kemal,
the social worker who pleaded with the Commission for Social Care
Inspectorate (CSCI) to investigate the child-protection service in Haringey,
north London, to realise the courage it takes to stand up and be counted.
work is a not just a thankless task – it can be frightening and ruin your
career.
Kemal is still fighting to be heard, but then she is fortunate to be
represented by Lawrence Davies, a solicitor who has made his career
championing the lone voice of protest at work. Davies, 42, founding partner
of the specialist employment solicitors Equal Justice, took on the US
government – and won – in his first trial at the age of 29. And he has won a
string of high-profile victories since.
Not surprisingly he is treated with a certain respect by his legal
adversaries. “The head of a City law firm’s employment department described
us as giving a Rolls-Royce service to our clients,” he said, “because we
litigated them into the ground really, which is normally what a City law
firm tries to do. I learnt a lot from working in the City, so we know almost
all their strategies and can out-think them.”
He abandoned the fat salary and the fast cars that came with his first job at
Ernst & Young to set up Equal Justice, and put his mind to championing
those who feel bullied, harassed, silenced or otherwise discriminated
against at work.
Why does he do it? “I’ve always had an empathy for people who fight injustice.
If I hear about an injustice it upsets me,” said Davies. “I’ve always taken
the cause of people who were being oppressed or picked on. It just seems to
be the right thing to do. “We represent people who have been the victims of
injustice. That’s not to say that all our clients are saints, because
they’re not, but in what they are doing is a good thing – they are fighting
against injustice. They are tremendously brave, courageous people and often
an inspiration because they have gone through horrific circumstances
sometimes but still retained compassion.”
His latest case epitomises all that he went into law to do. He is representing
Kemal, the Haringey social worker who first came to him in February 2006,
(six months before Baby P died) with concerns about child protection in
Haringey. He can’t say too much about the specifics, except to say that he
is hoping to get her released from a confidentiality agreement so that she
can give evidence to a public inquiry.
“This is one of the worst cases of injustice I had seen for a long time – we
are motivated by the satisfaction we get by fighting injustice and this case
had it all,” he said. Despite the horrors of the case he believes change is
possible, and if his record is anything to go by he may actually be the one
person who can help to achieve it.
He believes her evidence is vital to getting to the heart of what went wrong
at Haringey. “It’s the specifics that give the general points substance and
the devil is always in the detail. So we need to have that undertaking
removed and hopefully I will write to Gordon Brown and say she wants to give
evidence to the inquiry – please arrange for this to happen.”
The focus of any public inquiry had to be as broad as possible, he said, if it
was to ensure that anything changed and children did not get put at risk any
more.
“The procedures really aren’t very complicated. They are simple and
transparent. So you have to get to the heart of why they failed. That is
what the investigation has to uncover. It is possible to put into effect in
Haringey systems and personnel who operate those systems correctly which
will minimise the risk that it will happen again,” said Davies. “That’s the
best that anyone can do. It’s heartbreaking we did absolutely everything we
could to get the government, CSCI and that borough to do something about the
situation of child protection. It’s a tragedy.”
If anyone can do it, Davies can. The law holds absolutely no fear for him.
“We’ve changed the law five times,” he said. The most dramatic example was
when he was representing a female police officer who challenged two
colleagues for ridiculing a Somali woman who had come into the police
station for help after being robbed.
The whistleblowing police officer was vilified in the press and accused of
ruining the two officers’ lives. She received death threats as a result, but
the only way of tackling the case under existing law would have meant a
risky and expensive trip to the High Court.
Instead Davies came up with a plan – he used antistalking laws to pioneer a
new way for “regular people” to sue the press for defamation of character.
It worked.
However, whistleblowers may win the argument, but they almost always lose
their jobs in the process.
Among the whistleblowers he has successfully defended is Colin Cook, the
Muslim teacher who blew the whistle on suspect exam practices at King Fahad
Academy, a Saudi Arabian school in Acton, west London, which eventually led
to the shredding of 2,000 text books which encouraged the vilification of
Jews. Cook won the moral argument but lost his job.
“So I think people like Kemal and Cook should be applauded,” said Davies.
“They are the real heroes in our society because they risk it all for doing
the right thing. The real problem in society is that people are too afraid
to exercise their rights.”
The other reason people don’t exercise their rights is the risk of the fear of
the potential loss. “Do you know what the average award is for
discrimination? £7,500.
“And for losing your job? It’s not the best deal in the world. The average
cost of bringing the case is £20,000.”
His firm believes in affordable representation – if clients come in with a
discrimination case he will always try to find a way of bringing it forward
in a way that is affordable.
And before you think that you can’t possibly afford a lawyer, he suggests you
check your household-insurance policy, your mortgage indemnity agreement, or
even your credit card.
“You may find that you have £50,000 legal cover. In the 1990s insurance
companies began to give out £50,000 of legal cover as a perk – and it’s
still there,” he said.
Not a lot of people know that.
Equal Justice at work
Colin Cook vs the King Fahad Academy, London Cook, an English teacher,
complained that children at the school were working from annotated text
books during an exam. He was dismissed for speaking out. During the ensuing
tribunal he was awarded £70,000 and afterwards it emerged that books that
had lesson objectives such as What are the Repressible Qualities of Jews?
were found at the school. Some 2,000 copies were later shredded.
Mary Fogerty vs the US Lawrence Davies became the first advocate to win
a discrimination case against the US government. Mary Fogerty was sexually
harassed and dismissed while working in London for the Foreign Broadcast
Information Service at the US embassy.
Esther Thomas vs the press Thomas, who worked for the City of London
Police, was vilified in the media after she complained about her colleagues
for racially abusing a Somali refugee who had come to the police for help.
Davies came up with the idea of using antistalking legislation to argue that
the press had technically harassed her.
