Ingrid Gubbay

Of Counsel
London

OVERVIEW

Ingrid Gubbay is a skilled litigator and campaign lawyer with 25 years’ experience and heads the HR & Environmental team. She has won awards for her ground-breaking cases, both in Australia where she ran test cases and class actions at the legal Aid Commission of NSW, and in the UK, where she formerly worked as Principal Campaign lawyer at the NGO Which?.

Expertise

She conducts strategic public/private law litigation and advice, both domestically and internationally, on behalf of communities affected by large scale corporate violations. She is an active member of the Global Climate Litigation network, a Trustee of Legal Action Network (LAW) which works to bring legal accountability for women living in conflict zones, and a frequent commentator on legal innovations in the field of Business and Human rights.

In April 2019, Ingrid was featured by the Law Society as ‘Lawyer of the Week’ for her work on the successful #PeriodPoverty legal campaign.

Clients

She regularly acts for a wide range of organisations, including WWF, Avaaz, Client Earth, climate activists and campaigners in the area of gender justice.

- Issued a claim on behalf of a group of Zambian villagers against Vedanta Resources Limited and Konkola Copper Mines plc, in respect of the contamination of the waterways caused by their mining operation.
- Developed the drafting of the legal Communication submitted on behalf of 16 youth petitioners to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, led by teenage activist Greta Thunberg.
- Drafted a comprehensive Guide for WWF UK’s 5-year plan regarding Climate Change and Children: litigation and campaign options, working with Essex and Strathclyde Universities.
- Obtained settlement for 500 former workers in India following mercury contamination.
- Led Hausfeld London’s legal project against air pollution.
- Assisted communities affected by hydropower dam builds in Northern Iraq and Brazil.
- Provided comprehensive advice to Pacific Small Island States on climate litigation/arbitration options.
- Advised on threats to customary owned land by palm oil operators in Liberia.
- Advised communities poisoned by lead smelting works in Kazakhstan.
- Led the legal campaign to end #PeriodPoverty, teaming up with Crowd Justice, Free Periods and the Red Box Project.
- Acted in two high profile judicial reviews on behalf of Avaaz - the first related to resisting the Murdoch family’s bid for BSKYB news (one of the drivers leading to the Leveson Inquiry) and the second related to the Murdoch family’s bid for Sky and the question of whether Sky would remain ‘fit and proper’ to hold a broadcasting licence if 100% owned by 21st Century Fox.
- Assisted Masai villages affected by tourism operators on their land in Tanzania.
- Advised local communities in South America and South Africa in their disputes with mine operators.