Sexual Harassment, NDAs and the role of Lawyers: Karon Monaghan in conversation with Zelda Perkins

Karon Monaghan QC, Barrister, Matrix Chambers
Zelda Perkins, Theatre Producer for Robert Fox Ltd

Chair:

Professor Richard Moorhead, UCL Centre for Ethics & Law

About the event

Karon and Zelda will discuss

• how women experience sexual harassment in the workplace;
• how organisations generally, and lawyers in particular, respond to those;
• the use of non-disclosure agreements and ongoing political responses to sexual harassment and the use of NDAs.

About the speakers

Karon Monaghan is a barrister at Matrix Chambers and practises principally in the fields of equality and discrimination law, human rights and EU law. Her work spans the fields of employment law, civil actions, judicial review and inquests. She has appeared in numerous cases at appellate level, including in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court and (on references under Art 267, TFEU) in the CJEU.

Zelda Perkins is a Theatre Producer for Robert Fox Ltd and a former assistant to Harvey Weinstein. She recently broke the 20 year silence on her non-disclosure agreement (NDA), facing the risk of legal action to talk about what she faced and its contents. In 2018 Perkins testified before parliament to change regulation around such employment contracts and settlement agreements. She is currently working with the Women and Equalities Committee to change the way NDA’s are structured within the law, in order to create a better framework which protects the victims of the situation. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has already recommended imposing mandatory duty on employers to prevent workplace harassment.

Richard Moorhead is a Professor of Law and Professional Ethics at UCL London.

Watch the video