A London firm has claimed sex discrimination in judicial review proceedings challenging the Legal Services Commission’s refusal to award it immigration and community care contracts.

Hereward & Foster issued proceedings in the Administrative Court on 7 September and has requested an expedited hearing.

The firm claims it failed to get contracts because it lost points, as its supervisors work the equivalent of a four-day week.

Partner Deborah Adler said the supervisors are women who had worked full time, but reduced their hours after having children.

She said: ‘We believe that the refusal to issue contracts is a clear case of discrimination, and penalises the firm for implementing family friendly policies.’

‘We believe it unlikely that we are the only firm affected in this way, and would be happy to provide further information to other firms in a similar position. It is also an issue that could affect women legal aid solicitors in future contract rounds.’

Adler said the LSC denies being discriminatory, but has not yet provided a full response to the claim.

An LSC spokesman said: 'We believe we have run a fair and transparent tender process that is non-discriminatory. We take our equalities duties very seriously and published a full impact assessment on the process with our consultation response last year.'