About Daniel Barnett

Daniel Barnett is highly regarded for his employment and HR law expertise, representing both employers (80%) and employees (20%). He has appeared in many Court of Appeal and Employment Appeal Tribunal cases together with complex High Court employment litigation. He also appears regularly in employment tribunals up and down the country.

His areas of work include: 

  • Unfair dismissal claims
  • Whistleblowing and discrimination claims
  • Collective redundancy disputes
  • Restrictive covenant cases
  • Employees who misuse their employer's confidential information
  • Trade union disputes (including compulsory recognition applications to the CAC)


Daniel Barnett is widely recognised for direct access work and has a number of FTSE-100 clients and NHS Trusts where he is instructed directly by their HR departments. His clients include a Royal Family, several international airlines, a global leisure industry company and telecommunications company, as well as many hundreds of SMEs. Employee clients range from senior executives of quoted companies through to David & Victoria Beckham's nanny. His specific areas of interest are post-termination restrictive covenants, age discrimination and retirement issues, industrial law (strikes), employment agencies and permanent health insurance disputes.

Daniel is founder of the Employment Law (UK) mailing list, an email bulletin service sending out updates three times a week to 30,000 solicitors, barristers, judges and HR professionals. He is past editor of ELA Briefing and past chair of the Employment Lawyers' Association publishing committee and electronic services working party. He has sat on various Bar Council committees and is a member of the Staff Committee and Bar Representation Committees of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. Daniel has considerable business experience, having been a director of a legal publishing company since 1999. In 2007 he co-founded a company providing online legal training, CPD Webinars Ltd., which he sold to Thomson Reuters in 2011. In 2015, he founded www.hrinnercircle.co.uk, a membership club for smart, ambitious, standalone HR Professionals.

Legal directories describe him as: 

  • "involved in a number of highly contentious matters" 
  • "singled out for his public access work for large blue-chip companies"
  • "combination of in-depth legal knowledge pragmatism, quick response times and approachability"
  • "inexhaustible"
  • "tenacious"
  • "knowledgeable"
  • "an excellent advocate"

Daniel is regularly invited to comment on current legal issues, on television, and on the radio. He is the presenter of the LBC Legal Hour, broadcasting every Saturday evening at 9pm across the UK, in which he answers legal question from LBC callers. He is the author or co-author of eleven books, including the Law Society Handbook on Employment Law.

Daniel in numbers - 2016/17

3

FTSE-250 companies represented or advised

57

times Daniel has been interviewed or appeared on radio, television and the national press

306

sets of HR Policies provided to organisations

2

directories featuring Daniel
 as a
leading employment law barrister

116

case updates to the 
employment law vault

22

keynote or other conference speeches delivered

11

legal update CDs recorded

44

SMEs Daniel has represented or advised

3

57

306

2

FTSE-250 companies represented or advised

times Daniel has been interviewed or appeared on radio, television and the national press

sets of HR Policies provided to organisations

directories featuring Daniel as a leading employment law barrister

116

22

11

44

case updates to the employment law vault

keynote or other conference speeches delivered

legal update CDs recorded

SMEs Daniel has represented or advised

"Daniel Barnett is brilliant. He knows every answer. Fantastic"

- Jeremy Vine

When acting as a barrister, Daniel Barnett is regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Click here for more information.

Copyright © 2024 Employment Law Services Ltd. All Rights Reserved.