Oliver Mills

Oliver is regularly instructed, by both claimants and respondents, to appear in the Employment Tribunal, in complex cases involving claims of discrimination, whistleblowing, unfair dismissal and equal pay.

Oliver is often instructed to advise from an early stage of proceedings and is experienced in dealing with the full range of substantive and procedural issues that can arise during the preliminary stages of Tribunal litigation.  His recent experience includes:

• Melki v Bouygues E and S Contracting[2024] EAT 36; [2024] ICR 803 – acting for the claimant (pro bono) in the first case to consider the application of the EAT’s new power to extend time under amended EAT rule 37(5) (led by James Goudie KC).
• Stevens v (1) 0001 Capita Plc (2) Capita Customer Management Ltd – acting for the successful respondents in a trial concerning claims of unfair dismissal, discrimination and equal pay.
• Acting for a claimant working in the fashion industry, in an age discrimination claim, that settled for a significant sum shortly before trial.
• Acting for a claimant in an ongoing high profile sexual harassment claim (led by Sean Jones KC).
• Mr Hanan v (1) Mr Griggs, (2) Griggs Estates Limited – acting for the successful respondent in a trial involving claims of automatically unfair dismissal, and harassment related to age, race, gender reassignment and sex.
• Acting for multiple claimants in claims of antisemitism that settled for significant sums before trial.
• Acting for a respondent, an international professional services company, in a complex whistleblowing claim.
• Acting for a respondent, one of the big four accounting firms, in disability discrimination and unfair dismissal proceedings.

Oliver is also instructed in High Court proceedings and has experience assisting with commercial employment law litigation, including disputes concerning team moves, breach of confidence and restrictive covenants.

Oliver is a contributor to Tolley’s Employment Handbook.

Oliver advises and acts for individuals, non-governmental organisations, and local and central government in all aspects of public law, both led and unled.

Recent experience includes:

• Advising central government departments on various matters, both led and unled.
• Advising a non-governmental organisation on the human rights implications of a Bill before Parliament, and its potential amendments.
• Acting for the Secretary of State for Business and Trade (led by Daniel Stilitz KC and Claire Darwin KC) in R (Unison) and others v Secretary of State for Business and Trade [2023] ICR 1405.

Oliver also has a particular interest in human rights litigation in Southern Africa. He does pro bono work for the Southern African Litigation Centre and has recently been involved in a successful appeal to the Supreme Court of Eswatini challenging the decision of the Registrar of Companies to refuse to register an LGBTI advocacy organisation.

Oliver accepts instructions in all areas of Public International Law. Recent highlights include:

• Acting for the State of Palestine in advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice on the obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations and third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (led by Paul S. Reichler, alongside Zac Sammour, Aliya Al-Yassin and Samuel Willis).

• Assisting with the United Kingdom’s written statement for the advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice on the Right to Strike under ILO Convention 87 (led by Daniel Stilitz KC and Phillipa Webb).
• Advising a state on its obligations in international labour law in relation to a case before the ILO’s Committee of Freedom of Association (led by Marcus Pilgerstorfer KC).

Oliver is regularly instructed in data protection matters, in particular, advisory work and litigation under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Recent experience includes:

• Acting for a large retailer in defending a group action claim, after it had suffered a cyber-attack.
• Kuzi-Orizu v Lowell Portfolio 1 Limited and Equifax Limited – acted for Equifax Limited in a claim concerning the accuracy of the data on the claimant’s credit report. The claimant’s claim was struck out, certified as totally without merit and Equifax Limited was awarded its costs as the claimant was found to have acted unreasonably.
• Knight v TDX Group Limited – acted for the successful defendant in a claim concerning the claimant’s data subject access request. The defendant was awarded its costs as the claimant was found to have acted unreasonably.