Martin Mensah

Overview

Martin is an accomplished advocate of over 15 years call. He joined Nine in 2022 having been the Head of Employment at his previous set. He is able understand complex issues and develop practical solutions and can get to the point of a matter with minimal fuss. He speaks to his clients in a language which they can understand and works hard to to ensure a clear strategic path through any problems.

Away from work, Martin likes to play squash and go to the cinema.

Employment

Martin is an accomplished employment advocate of over 15 years call. He joined Chambers in 2022 to further develop his practice, having been the Head of Employment at his previous set for a number of years.

Martin’s practice in employment law is nationwide and particularly focuses upon discrimination claims pursuant to the Equality Act 2010. His employment practice covers all aspects of discrimination with extensive experience of multi-day discrimination claims acting for Respondents and Claimants.

He settles pleadings, is instructed in multi-day final hearings and has also advised or acted in matters which include restrictive covenants, employment status, contractual disputes, redundancy; unfair dismissal, whistleblowing and TUPE transfers. He acts in high value discrimination claims and representing clients at remedy hearings. Martin has been instructed to draft compromise agreements, contracts of employment and employment handbooks parental leave, flexible working and various other policies and to conduct investigation and grievance hearings on behalf of employers.

He is not afraid of tackling the legal issues that such work provides. His skills have also be utilised in the High Court and Employment Appeal Tribunal and he welcomes further instructions in such cases.

He acts for a broad client base including PLCs, medium sized companies, trade unions and local authorities. His Claimant portfolio has included claims against the BBC, NHS Trusts, BT, Lancashire Constabulary, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, JLR, Merseytravel and MITIE. He acts for a range of Local Authorities and is experienced in handling the challenges encountered in public authority work. He has dealt with high value cases and appeared in statutory cap cases in the tribunal. Martin has acted in claims relating to NHS Trusts, acting for Doctors and medical professionals in multi-day claims relating to unfair dismissal and whistleblowing complaints.

Martin developed a race equality scheme for the Government Office for the East Midlands prior to commencing self-employed practice.

Clients value Martin’s technical expertise, robust approach and his commercial acumen. He is skilled in handling commercially or reputationally sensitive cases. He is also an astute negotiator at Judicial Mediations or in obtaining favourable settlements. Martin seeks to support his clients wherever possible and has delivered training and mock tribunals to solicitors and HR professionals.

Special Education Needs

Martin represents parents, pupils, schools and their governing bodies (maintained and independent sector), academies, universities and FE colleges, students, teaching and academic staff and local authorities in all areas of Education law. Martin navigates parents and local authorities through the formulation of EHC plans, school exclusions and tackling EOTAS packages.

He is instructed in County Court and disciplinary/independent review panel proceedings across all areas of school and university life and has been instructed in claims for judicial review arising out of the decisions of local authorities.

Martin has a particular expertise in discrimination claims, acting for students, pupils, schools, universities and Further education colleges in claims before the County Court and specialist regulatory tribunals.

Martin appears in school admissions appeals and challenges to school exclusions before independent panels. Martin has expertise in presenting appeals in the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) concerning Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans and education-related disability discrimination claims at all levels.

Martin engages in advisory work relating to disputes arising from exam results, school complaints procedures, safeguarding/child protection issues, attendance, school closures and re-organisations and is involved in appeals relating to the deregistration/disqualification of childminders and nurseries.

Martin has acted as Clerk to the School appeals panel for Sefton Borough Council and Cumbria.

Martin has presented Appeals to the First-Tier (Special Educational Needs and Disability) Tribunal for local authorities including Halton, St Helens, Blackpool, Trafford and Hampshire Council. Martin has represented local authorities at Upper Tribunal appeals, education related disability discrimination claims including school exclusions, represented parents at school admissions appeals.

He has provided advice and representation regarding judicial review proceedings, advised on school attendance and school transport issues, provided advisory and drafting services for students in relation to appeals to the Office for the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education and dealt with Breach of contract claims concerning Universities.

Notable Cases

MW v Halton Borough Council [2010] UKUT 34 (AAC) – Martin represented the local authority in this matter before the Upper Tribunal.

Regulatory

In the field of Regulatory/Professional Conduct, Martin acts for UK regulators including the General Medical Council.

Martin has expertise in regulatory matters, in particular the regulation of professionals such as Doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers and police officers. Martin represents professionals facing fitness to practise proceedings and has acted for nurses in cases before the Nursing and Midwifery Council and social workers in proceedings before Social Work England.

Martin has experience before various regulatory tribunals including representing Doctors in multi-day hearings before the GMC fitness to practice panel and interim order hearings.

Martin has represented teachers before the Education and Workforce Council and medical professionals before the GMC and NMC.

Martin has also been Clerk to the Police Discipline Tribunal.

Martin has provided advice on strategic issues and police misconduct issues to Greater Manchester Police force.

Prescribed Information

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

Martin’s clerks will happily provide no obligation quotations for all legal services that he provides. Their contact details can be found here. It is most common for Martin to undertake Court and Tribunal work for either a fixed fee or brief fee plus additional refresher days. For advisory work, paperwork and conferences it is most commonly charged at an hourly rate, although fixed fees may be available depending on the circumstances. Martin will typically return paperwork within 10-14 days, however professional commitments, complexity and volume of documentation can affect these approximate timescales. Shorter timescales can be accommodated, please notify Martin’s clerk at the time of instructing if this is required.

Martin also undertakes Direct Access work. This work is undertaken on a contractual basis, as agreed between the client and Martin’s clerks. This is on fixed fee basis for a specific events such as a conference, advisory work, a hearing with additional hearing days (refreshers) or the drafting of specific documents. All work agreed to be undertaken by Martin with the fixed fee cost will be clearly outlined in the direct access contract signed by the client and will be payable in full prior to the commencement of the work.

Overview

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