Navid Pourghazi’s practice spans employment and discrimination law, civil liberties & human rights, commercial law and claims relating to breach of confidence, sports law, professional discipline and regulation, and independent investigations. He is routinely instructed in heavy City employment litigation, as well as strategic litigation on behalf of claimants. He has been instructed in significant cases before the EAT, High Court, Court of Appeal and CJEU, as well as numerous professional regulatory tribunals. His experience includes multi-day discrimination and whistleblowing claims, sexual harassment claims, employment status cases, restrictive covenant cases, and high-value bonus claims. 

Navid has particular expertise in complex group litigation, acting for both claimants and respondents in cases concerning equal pay, worker status, holiday pay, and national minimum wage rights.

Navid is a member of the Equality & Human Rights Commission’s Panel of Counsel, and is ranked as a highly-rated practitioner in the Chambers UK Bar Guide and Legal 500. Recent quotes include:

·        "Navid is technically brilliant, incredibly meticulous, great with clients and commercially savvy."- Chambers UK, 2023

·        "Clearly a future silk – he is thoughtful, comprehensive and precise."- Legal 500, 2023

·        "He is an incredible junior who is astute on the detail, and he comes up with angles that have not been thought of before.", "He's really thoughtful and really meticulous."- Chambers UK, 2022

Before coming to the Bar, Navid worked in several different fields, including as a Graduate Tutor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and as a Consultant to the United Nations on Public International Law matters.

Experience

Shortlist

Employment

Navid is recommended in both the Chambers UK Bar Guide and Legal 500 as a highly rated employment practitioner.

He has extensive experience across a wide range of employment matters. His clients include large commercial entities such as banks, major airlines, and businesses in the platform economy; non-commercial organisations such as Universities, schools, and local authorities; and an array of individual clients such as brokers and bankers, academics, lawyers, television presenters, directors of galleries and artistic institutions, headteachers, individuals who work in service, retail, and public sector jobs, and people engaged in  precarious forms of work. He has been instructed in numerous multi-day whistleblowing claims, employment status cases, restrictive covenant cases, and equal pay claims. 

For details of sub-areas of work within employment law, see the sections titled “Discrimination”, “Whistleblowing”, and “Employee Competition” below.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Discrimination

Navid has a very busy discrimination practice acting for both claimants and respondents in the fields of employment, goods and services, public functions and education. He is often instructed in long and complex hearings, including as sole counsel against KCs. He has a particular interest and expertise in equal pay claims, sensitive claims of sexual harassment, and claims arising out of the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. He is a member of the Equality & Human Rights Commission's Panel of Counsel, and has been instructed in high-profile cases, including the mass equal pay litigation against the Co-op supermarket, Royal Mail v Efobi in the Court of Appeal, BBC equal pay litigation, and claims challenging the use of facial verification technology by a major business operating in the platform economy. 

Further information on Navid’s discrimination practice outside the employment/work context can also be found below under the section “Civil Liberties & Human Rights”.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Group Litigation

Navid has distinguished himself as a pre-eminent junior in employment-related group litigation. His experience includes handling group litigation on behalf of claimants and respondents in the civil courts and employment tribunals. Many of his employment and discrimination cases are now group litigation claims, which are often worth hundreds of millions of pounds, and have the potential to necessitate adjustments to employers’ business models that could be worth many more hundreds of millions of pounds going forward.

Navid is currently acting in group litigation claims concerning worker status, equal pay, holiday pay, and national minimum wage rights. He is regularly instructed to advise in the context of potential group litigation. Several of Navid's group litigation cases have been running for many years, and Navid enjoys the teamwork that comes with group litigation. 

Alongside the above, Navid has considerable experience of running smaller scale "group" litigation e.g. cases where he is acting for tens of clients bringing or defending similar claims.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Whistleblowing

Navid regularly receives instructions in complex whistleblowing claims, often alongside claims for discrimination, unfair dismissal or unpaid bonuses. He has considerable experience of whistleblowing cases in the financial and legal sector, and a number of his cases have a significant socio-political angle.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Employment Status & Contracts

Navid has acted in, and advised on, a number of the leading employment status cases in recent years. This includes acting as junior counsel in the preliminary reference to the CJEU in the case of Bridges v Yodel Delivery Network C-692/19. He is currently acting for one of the largest businesses in the platform economy regarding employment status and related issues. 

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Employee Competition

Navid has considerable experience in employee competition and business protection matters, spanning restrictive covenants and team moves, breach of confidence, and database rights. He is particularly sought-after for his commercialism, and ability to complement large legal teams.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Employment & Data Protection

Navid frequently advises on breach of confidence and misuse of confidential information claims, including applications for delivery up and other injunctive relief. Many of these claims settle without a hearing. 

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Investigations & Inquiries

Navid has  significant experience undertaking highly-sensitive independent investigations on behalf of a range of clients, including large corporations and businesses, public and educational institutions, and regulatory bodies. He is sought after for his forensic skills as an investigator, and for his ability to lead teams of investigators in complex investigations. Navid has undertaken investigations as part of grievance, misconduct and disciplinary processes. Navid also has experience chairing teams of investigators.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Professional Discipline

Navid is frequently instructed in long-running, sensitive, and complex professional discipline cases. He accepts instructions to represent both professional regulatory bodies and individuals facing charges of misconduct and/or breach of their profession’s rules in a range of fields including finance, education, medicine, sport, and law. He is often instructed early in a case to advise on the best way to navigate issues of procedure.

Cases

Grid view
List view
Shortlist

Civil Liberties & Human Rights

Navid has an extensive practice in civil liberties & human rights law, largely focused on claimant work. He has developed particular expertise in claims brought on behalf of prisoners, on behalf of individuals who are denied goods and services on discriminatory grounds, around the misuse of Artificial Intelligence and the non-transparent collection and use of mass data and surveillance systems, and against educational and other public authorities. A number of his claims are strategic and supported by the Equality & Human Rights Commission.

Cases

Grid view
List view

Achievements

Education

  • BA (Hons): Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Wadham College, University of Oxford, 1st Class
  • MPhil: Political Theory, Balliol College, University of Oxford
  • GDL: City Law School
  • BPTC: City Law School, Outstanding, ranked 5th out of 350 in year


Professional awards

  • 2018 – Nominated for the National Bar Pro Bono Award: “Young Barrister of the Year”
  • 2017 – Jointly nominated for the National Bar Pro Bono Award (with Tom Coghlin QC)
  • 2017 – Bar Pro Bono Unit award for invaluable contribution to pro bono work
  • 2016 – Camden Volunteer Award: In recognition of the pro bono representation provided to clients at the Camden Community Law Centre

University prizes

  • 2015 – Everard Award for exceptional BPTC results at City Law School
  • 2014 – Shortlisted for City Law School Prize for public law coursework
  • 2007 – Highest Final Honour School marks in PPE at Wadham College, University of Oxford
  • 2007 – Eprime Eshag Award for overall performance in Economics at Wadham College, University of Oxford

Inns of Court prizes and scholarships

  • 2015 – Buchanan Prize for outstanding results in the BPTC 
  • 2015 – Walter Wigglesworth Scholarship
  • 2014 – Lord Denning BPTC Scholarship
  • 2013 – Lord Bowen GDL Scholarship
  • 2013 – Hardwicke Entrance Award

Publications

'Employment: Religious discrimination' (with Schona Jolly QC) – Insight, West Law 


Memberships

  • Employment Law Bar Association (ELBA) 
  • Employment Lawyers Association (ELA)
  • Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL)
  • Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) 
  • Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC) 
  • The Constitutional & Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA) 
  • Free Representation Unit (FRU)


Other relevant information

Navid is an Accredited Civil & Commercial Mediator with ADR Group.

VAT registration number: 253262030

Barristers regulated by the Bar Standards Board

+44 (0)207 5831770

Clerks

Staff