Alasdair Henderson Call: 2009
alasdair.henderson@1cor.com Profile Alasdair is developing a broad practice in all main areas of Chambers’ work, with a particular interest in public law, employment and equality, human rights and clinical negligence. He appears regularly before various courts and tribunals including County Courts, the High Court, Employment Tribunals, the First Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal. He is also regularly instructed in drafting and advisory work. Employment & Equality Alasdair has extensive experience of acting for both Claimants and Respondents in a wide variety of employment and discrimination matters. His recent cases have involved issues as diverse as rolled-up holiday pay, whistleblowing, TUPE compliance, the definition of ‘employee’, redundancy/restructuring and constructive dismissal. He has been instructed in several complex discrimination claims involving final hearings of six days or more and has particular experience in dealing with workplace problems arising in the education and healthcare sectors. He has also acted, as junior counsel, in a three-week equal pay hearing. Public Inquiries, Public Law and Human Rights Alasdair acted as junior counsel to the Metropolitan Police in the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press. He is currently representing a large number of soldiers in the Al-Sweady Public Inquiry into allegations of mistreatment and unlawful killing of prisoners in Iraq. Alasdair has appeared on numerous occasions in the First Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber). He has experience of advising on immigration law matters, including judicial review applications and claims of unlawful detention. He also has experience of public law matters more generally, from advising NHS Trusts on the legality of their processes for detaining patients under the Mental Health Act 1983 to advising prisoners on potential human rights challenges. Clinical Negligence and Healthcare Law Alasdair is regularly instructed by Claimants and Defendants in clinical negligence cases, drafting pleadings and appearing before the County Court and High Court in applications and hearings. Regulatory and Disciplinary Law Alasdair has experience of General Medical Council proceedings and of representing Registrants before the Conduct and Competence Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council. He previously acted as a Clerk to the Bar Disciplinary Tribunals by the Council of the Inns of Court and he has been appointed to the Legal Services Board’s Panel of External Legal Advisors. Alasdair has also undertaken work on behalf of the Office of Fair Trading in several regulatory and consumer protection cases in relation to markets as varied as private healthcare, furniture and time-share holiday homes. Alasdair has a First Class degree in law from the University of Oxford. He was awarded a Thouron scholarship to undertake an LL.M. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated top of his class, specialising in international law, comparative constitutional law and administrative law. During his LL.M. he was a researcher for the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (analysing US media as part of a project on human rights and democratisation in Iran), worked on immigration cases and an application to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concerning the rights of undocumented migrant workers, and taught an undergraduate course in comparative politics. Before coming to the Bar, Alasdair was a research fellow for the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law in Washington DC where he contributed to a textbook on international civil society law. Following this, he worked for International Justice Mission in Kigali, Rwanda assisting in cases of land rights violations and sexual violence against children. He also acted as a consultant to the Rwandan Government on the revision of their legislation regulating charities and NGOs. He retains an interest in both public international law and civil society law, and has advised charities and NGOs on various issues, including cross-border employment matters and the enforcement of human rights obligations.
Alasdair is a member of the Bar Pro Bono Unit and a Free Representation Unit social security and employment representative.
Qualifications Bar Vocational Course, Very Competent - BPP Law School, London (2009)
Thouron Scholar, University of Pennsylvania
Inner Temple Princess Royal Scholarship
LLM, Award for Excellence (summa cum laude) - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (2007)
Gluckstein Scholar and Hanbury Scholar, Lincoln College Oxford
BA (Hons) in Jurisprudence, First Class- Lincoln College, Oxford (2006) Publications “Recent Developments (and Problems) in the Law on Bias” [2011] JR 80 (with Philip Havers QC) Alasdair is a regular contributor to the UK Human Rights Blog – his articles can be accessed here.
Appointments Appointed to the Legal Services Board Panel of External Legal Advisors (2012) Professional memberships Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)
Employment Law Bar Association (ELBA)
Professional Negligence Bar Association (PNBA)
Bar European Group (BEG)
Advocates for International Development (A4ID)
The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship (LCF)
Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL)
Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) Significant cases include the following Williams v. Ystrad Mynach College [2012] EqLR 89 - acted for a Claimant suffering from hydrocephalus in a successful claim for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination. Schafer v. Royal Holloway and Bedford New College [2011] EqLR 429 – acted in a three-week equal pay claim for the Claimant, who was a female university professor claiming ‘like work’ with male professors. This was a test case in respect of the issue of ‘like work’ and some elements of the ‘genuine material factor’ defence in the context of higher education. The Leveson Inquiry The Al-Sweady Public Inquiry Other information VAT Registration No: 986 5339 63 | 
