Mariel Irvine Solicitors

Mariel Irvine is a boutique firm based in London. Mariel founded the firm in 2002 and is the sole principal. The practice has developed into a small firm with big cases.

The firm offers a highly responsive and dedicated personal service to organisations and individuals.

Specialist areas:

• Employment
• Inquests and inquiries
• Data protection
• Insurance
• Metal recycling
• Police

These specialisms have developed as a result of the evolving needs of clients. They are complementary and enable the firm's lawyers to examine a dispute or issue from a number of standpoints.

Clients include:

• Police and prison staff associations and their members
• Online retailers
• Metal recycling companies
• Executives in the banking, financial, diamond, consulting and other business sectors
• Insurers and Lloyds syndicates
• Security guard companies

Employment law

Mariel Irvine has been instructed on police pension issues arising out of the Court of Appeal’s decision in McCloud, including judicial review proceedings where a finding of unlawfulness was made against Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The firm recently represented a staff association in judicial review proceedings against the Police Renumeration Review Board and the Home Secretary.

Most of the practice's cases before the Employment Tribunal involve sex or race discrimination, or breach of the legislation protecting whistle blowers. The firm is currently defending a claim for compensation arising out of allegedly unlawful exclusion from trade union membership.

Mariel is acting for a number of clients in the civil courts who have suffered psychiatric injury as a result of stress and bullying at work.

Corporate executives come to Mariel on recommendations from colleagues for advice on how to instigate and progress exit negotiations. Hedge funds and a multinational group of companies refer their executives to the firm for independent advice on redundancy situations, and to negotiate settlement agreements and exit packages.

Inquests and inquiries

For four years a police force retained Mariel at the Manchester Arena Inquiry, after instructing her in the London Bombings Inquests in 2010.

She is currently retained by a police staff association and its member in the McGrail Inquiry in Gibraltar. She is regularly instructed at inquests arising from deaths in prisons.

Data Protection

Mariel is a qualified data protection practitioner. Her clients include the claims handling teams and GDPR working group of an insurer and Lloyd’s syndicate, together with a large teaching hospital and a regulatory body.

An online fashion retailer retains her as an outsourced DPO, and she advises an online trading platform for metal recyclers on compliance issues arising out of the design of their new app and website.

She created an online data protection training package for Bond Solon focused on the compliance requirements of expert witnesses.

She has recently published a legal reference book: A Practical Guide to Enforcing Data Protection Rights and Compensation for Data Breaches (2023) Law Brief Publishing.

Insurance

Insurers and Lloyds Syndicates retain the firm to defend their security guard policy holders in assault claims. Mariel was instructed in a multi-million pound brain injury case arising out of a scuffle with a security guard outside a nightclub.

She has advised a Lloyds Syndicate and broker on policy wordings covering assault claims and “deliberate acts”.

The Chartered Insurance Institute has invited Mariel to present seminars to its members on vicarious liability and the new protect duty. She recently gave a seminar on claims for compensation for data breaches following the publication of her book.

Metal recycling

Mariel provided one of the first drafts of the Scrap Metal Dealers' bill and have since been advising various interested parties on the Act’s likely meaning and effect. The British Metal Recycling Association and its individual members have been instructing the firm since the Act came into force on 1 October 2013. Mariel advised an insurer in relation to the Home Office review of the Act's effectiveness in 2017.

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Mariel has spoken at a number of conferences on the legislation and its associated guidance and she has been quoted extensively in the insurance press. Her book, A Practical Guide to the Scrap Metal Dealers' Act 2013, was published in December 2019. She has hosted successful in house seminars to scrap metal dealers and others on the subject.

Insurers have been instructing the firm to defend liability claims on behalf of scrap metal dealers for several years.

Police

Mariel has acted for the police throughout her career.

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Training

She regularly gives presentations at external conferences and seminars, and in house to clients.

Contact

Please contact Mariel at [email protected], or call her on 020 76082275.