Georgina Calvert-Lee

Practice Areas

Georgina is primarily an employment lawyer, with a particular focus on discrimination, harassment and whistleblowing law. Her work includes stress at work claims, and personal injury (usually psychological) arising from treatment at work. She regularly advises senior executives on starting new jobs or exiting a company, and employers on managing workplace issues.

Georgina also acts as an investigator into grievances or disciplinary matters, on behalf of companies and other organisations, including trade unions.

Georgina advises on discrimination and harassment outside the workplace too, in higher education or in the provision of goods and services.

Career

Georgina is a barrister and leading expert in employment law, equality and discrimination. She advises both senior executives and employers on a wide range of complex and often sensitive matters, spanning contentious and non-contentious employment law.

She is particularly well known for her work in discrimination, harassment and whistleblowing claims, and has acted in high-profile Equality Act cases in both the civil courts and the Employment Tribunal. Alongside her employment work, Georgina has represented clients in landmark legal actions involving adoption discrimination, the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

A recognised authority in the education sector, Georgina regularly advises universities and students on some of their most challenging discrimination and harassment cases. In partnership with the 1752 Group, she co-authored proposed guidance for the university sector on handling student allegations of staff sexual misconduct. She has also supported #Forthe100, a parent-led campaign calling for a statutory duty of care in higher education.

Georgina plays an active role in legislative reform and public advocacy. She has advised Irish senator Lynn Ruane on drafting legislation to prohibit the use of NDAs in discrimination cases, and works closely with the campaign group Can’t Buy My Silence, advising them on the law around NDAs, and on how to assist the individuals that come to them for help, as well as advising those individuals directly.

Bellevue Law was the first firm to sign their business pledge on NDAs – a step Georgina helped drive.

Dual-qualified in England & Wales and California, Georgina has over 25 years’ experience practising law in both the UK and US. She previously worked at Coudert Brothers in Washington DC, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (now Dentons) in Chicago and New York, and McAllister Olivarius in London, where she headed the UK practice. She is a member of Middle Temple.

Professional Memberships

Member of the Employment Lawyers Association.

Member of Middle Temple.

Member of the California State Bar.

Industry Sector Expertise

A recognised authority in the education sector, Georgina regularly advises universities and students on some of their most challenging discrimination and harassment cases. In partnership with the 1752 Group, she co-authored proposed guidance for the university sector on handling student allegations of staff sexual misconduct. She has also supported #Forthe100, a parent-led campaign calling for a statutory duty of care in higher education.

Work Highlights

Representing Chrissy Chambers in one of the first High Court civil claims for non-consensual sharing of intimate images, resulting in a substantial settlement award in 2018.

Representing Sandeep and Reena Mander in a race discrimination claim brought against their borough in relation to their application to adopt, supported by the EHRC and which succeeded at trial in 2019.

Representing Dr Emma Chapman in a claim against her university, UCL, for harassment, in which she successfully resisted the inclusion of an NDA in Dr Chapman's settlement agreement. As a result, UCL decided not to use NDAs in settlement agreements relating to bullying and harassment in the future. This has led Georgina to do further policy work around the regulation of NDAs, which continues to date, and has been instrumental in prompting the 2025 legislative provision relating to the use of NDAs by the higher education sector, to be rolled out more widely in the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill.

Advocating for universities to use fairer processes to handle complaints of staff sexual misconduct, leading to the joint-authorship, with the research and advocacy organisation, The 1752 Group, of a guidance for the sector on how to handle such complaints lawfully, . Georgina has also represented multiple students in arguing that the manner in which their complaints were handled amounted to indirect discrimination and harassment.

Providing legal advice to the parents involved in the #ForThe100 campaign, seeking a statutory duty of care for universities in relation to their students' mental health.

Education

Awards