A pregnant solicitor who was denied a promotion and then sacked just weeks after telling her boss she was having a baby has won £26,000 in compensation.
Michelle Dobson was told by firm founder Michael Cook that he would ‘have to leave it’ when she asked him about becoming a director after informing him of her pregnancy.
Less than a month later she was fired, with the Michael Cook Law Firm claiming it couldn’t afford to keep her on thanks to an alleged ‘dire financial situation’.
Now Ms Dobson has been awarded £26,474.91 after a judge said the decision to sack her was ‘motivated’ by her pregnancy.
According to his LinkedIn, Mr Cook opened the business, which specialises in the areas of commercial property, real estate, residential conveyancing and commercial law, in November 2018.
Michelle Dobson (pictured), a pregnant solicitor who was denied a promotion and then sacked just weeks after telling her boss she was having a baby, has won £26,000 in compensation
Ms Dobson joined the firm in Seaham, Durham, in August 2022 and worked at the small company three days a week, earning £21,000 a year, the Newcastle employment tribunal heard.
Employment Judge Pamela Arullendran said Ms Dobson, who was the only qualified solicitor in the business carrying out residential conveyancing, was seen as a ‘competent fee earner’ and during her tenure ‘no performance issues were raised’.
The tribunal heard she regularly came up with good ideas to bring more work into the organisation and suggested the firm appoint a second director so it could be added to an approved provider to mortgage lender panels.
In a meeting between the pair on January 26, 2023, Mr Cook told Ms Dobson he was extremely impressed with her work and he valued her assistance in running the company and her own files.
The firm’s boss then asked Ms Dobson to become a director of, with a pay review to take place in August 2023, which the employee responded to by saying she would like a pay rise for the added responsibility.
The matter was still in discussion when Ms Dobson told her boss she was pregnant while sitting in his car at a training event on February 1.
As she was ahead of her 12-week scan, she asked him not to tell anyone the news.
Ms Dobson added she was still happy to become a director but he replied by telling her he would ‘just have to leave it’.
EJ Arullendran said: ‘[Ms Dobson] continued working as a conveyancing solicitor and was not upset about [Mr Cook] not proceeding with the offer of directorship because she was happy in her position as a solicitor and did not wish to take on a lot of extra responsibility without an appropriate increase in her salary.’
On February 28, Mr Cook made the solicitor redundant, claiming the firm could no longer afford her.
Michael Cook (pictured) said he would ‘have to leave it’ when Ms Dobson asked him about becoming a director after informing him of her pregnancy
Ms Dobson lodged a grievance and argued that the dismissal was an act of pregnancy-related discrimination.
Her boss hired an external party to carry out the process but it transpired that he did not carry out a full investigation as he held no discussion with the two people involved in the dispute.
The tribunal said the expectant mother was ‘very upset’ and felt ‘totally blind-sided’ by the news.
‘Her appetite was non-existent and she was worried about her baby,’ the judge said.
‘[Ms Dobson] felt that she did not have a reason to get up in the mornings and the period after her dismissal was one of the darkest times in her life.’
They said she was sacked as a result of her pregnancy and awarded her £26,474.91 in compensation.
EJ Arullendran said: ‘[Mr Cook] knew about the claimant’s pregnancy and had decided not to promote her to the position of director because of her pregnancy and this demonstrated that the [firm] were consciously, or unconsciously, motivated by the claimant pregnancy in their decision-making process.’
MailOnline has approached Michael Cook Law Firm for comment.
