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Asian barrister kept out of court for being 'educated wog'
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent16 Oct 2009
An Indian-born barrister was kept out of top court cases because she was seen as "an educated wog", a tribunal heard today.
Dr Aisha Biljani blamed a culture of racism at the chambers she joined as a pupil barrister for preventing her from getting top court cases.
She said she was not allocated as much 'core' work as colleagues by chief clerk Lizzie Wiseman, who she claims had affairs with two consecutive heads of the Four New Square chambers.
Clerks in legal chambers control the distribution of 'briefs' given to barristers by instructing solicitors. Dr Biljani claims that she was given few briefs relating to her 'core' specialisms which included professional indemnity and insurance.
In her witness statement, which has been presented to the tribunal, Dr Biljani, who qualified as a barrister in 1993 after training as a doctor, described how one of the clerks, Dennis Peck, told his colleagues “I hate educated wogs.”
She said: “Hearing about this made me sick in the stomach. I have no doubt in my mind that I was being clerked in an environment where I was considered an educated wog'.
“I believe there was a culture of racism in the clerks' room that chambers just don't understand or want to deal with.
“I don't believe that chambers would have treated me that way had I not been an Asian woman and I feel that such treatment was beyond contempt.”
At an employment tribunal in central London today Dr Biljani said in her first year as a qualified barrister at the chambers she was given only had two core' briefs and was paid fees of just £3,365 whereas a colleague made more than £14,000.
She claimed there was no monitoring of the way briefs were handed out which prevented her from gaining experience in her specialised areas.
She also said: “Lizzie Wiseman the senior clerk's extra-marital affairs from 1999 with two consecutive heads of chambers in conflict with each of their positions speaks for itself.”
Dr Biljani said she became clinically depressed over issues with her mentors, describing one, Mark Cannon, as “unpleasant, sarcastic and dismissive towards me.”
She added he had “far-right views” on asylum seekers and should not have been in charge of her development.
Dr Biljani is claiming disability and race discrimination, indirect discrimination, victimisation, personal injury.
The hearing continues.
