A barrister whose claims of racial discrimination against his chambers were dismissed at an employment tribunal has had his appeal against the decision dismissed.
In a tribunal in 2020, Daniel Matovu’s claims of direct and indirect race discrimination and harassment related to race and victimisation were dismissed on their merits but also on the grounds that his claims, bar three of them, were out of time.
Matovu, who represented himself, appealed the decision on a number of grounds including that the ET had not conducted a fair hearing.
Matovu, called to the bar in 1985, moved to 2 Temple Garden Chambers in 2001. He was expelled in 2019. The respondents, 2 Temple Gardens Chambers, Neil Moody KC, and Lee Tyler, denied all the claims.
In the 78-page judgment, Matovu was described as a ‘highly experienced employment tribunal practitioner who evidently has a great deal of confidence in his own abilities’.
The judgment added: ‘We have no doubt at all that he will have encountered race discrimination in the course of his career at the bar, and we do not discount the pressures that he was under in presenting his own case. But his attempts to equate his position with that of the typical black litigant in person who appears in the employment tribunal were unconvincing.’
Dismissing the appeal, which was held before the Honourable Mr Justice Linden, Mr Desmond Smith and Dr Gillian Smith MBE, the judgment said: ‘There were points at which the ET could have gone further if it were biased against Mr Matovu.
‘It did not make findings of bad faith against him; it refrained from making detailed criticisms of his credibility as a witness; it did not make all of the findings against him on disputed issues which it might have made if it had been biased. Moreover, its findings were clearly based on its assessment of the case.’
