WE ARE A HUMAN RIGHTS
LAW FIRM
working AGAINST injustice
working AGAINST the abuse of power
working FOR the vulnerable
WHO WE ARE
Conrathe Gardner LLP is a cutting-edge human rights law firm which helps clients challenge the lawfulness of actions taken by public authorities and the Government. Our lawyers have brought significant challenges against the State across a number of key areas. These include a challenge to the Government’s response to the COVID pandemic and challenges to the police in relation to the breach of their duty of impartiality and the overreach of police guidance concerning free speech. We have also acted on a stream of cases relating to the treatment of gender dysphoria. Our lawyers have brought several landmark cases which have related to the State’s actions/policies concerning gender ideology including
Miller v College of Policing, Bell v Tavistock and Smith v Northumbria Police.
​WHAT WE
DO
Our lawyers have represented clients in significant challenges against the State that have resulted in measurable impact across a variety of sectors.
HEALTHCARE
We provide advice in public law challenges in relation to the lawfulness of actions by the State in the provision of medical treatment.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Free Speech has been noted by one eminent judge as the ‘lifeblood of democracy’. It encompasses speech that people may find offensive.
EDUCATION
Our education practice is concerned with the potentially unlawful actions of schools, Local Authorities and central government.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
POLICE
We regularly advise on legal challenges against the police on issues relating to free speech, overreach and impartiality.
DISCRIMINATION & EQUALITY
We represent people who have been discriminated against or harassed because of their beliefs.
PUBLIC & ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
This area concerns the decision-making and polices of public bodies and private bodies that work on behalf of the State.
Our work for people of faith, their communities, and faith-based organisations, covers their relationship with the State, violation of their beliefs and matters of conscience.
CASE IN THE SPOTLIGHT
CHALLENGE TO PROJECT SPIRE
Two claimants, Dr Bijan Omrani and Revd Dr Jamie Franklin, are challenging the Church of England’s proposed £100 million diversion of funds to pay slavery reparations under Project Spire. The Church Commissioners allege that their predecessor body, the Queen Anne’s Bounty, had historic links to the transatlantic slave trade and therefore the current Commissioners have a moral obligation to make a significant reparative payment today. However, our claimants rely on forensic investigations done by scholars such as Lord Biggar CBE and Professor Robert Tombs, and specialist in the history of banking and of the South Sea Company, Professor Richard Dale. Their analysis demonstrates that there is no link between the Queen Anne’s Bounty and profits made from the slave trade.
The Church Commissioners are bound by statute to use their funds to support churches across the country and they have publicly admitted that they have no legal right to apply this £100m to a new charity which is entirely outside their statutory purposes. They are therefore trying to do this using s.106 of the Charities Act 2011, an obscure workaround which the claimants argue is not available to them in these circumstances.
With parishes up and down the country struggling for funds, unable to do the work they would like to in and for the local community, and many church leaders, like Revd Dr Franklin, being unpaid, there is a significant groundswell of support from the public for this legal challenge. The case is currently awaiting consideration by The Charity Commission.