John Bowers QC

John is a former Chair of the Employment Law Bar Association a member of the Standards Board for England, and now sits as a Recorder on the Midlands Circuit and a Deputy High Court Judge.

Between 2001-2003 he was a Member of Home Office Task Force on Human Rights. He used to be Honorary Legal Adviser for Public Concern at Work, the whistleblowers charity. Between 2001-5 John was a Member of Standard Board for England (Regulator of ethical standards in local government). Since 2003 he has been an Honorary Professor, University of Hull and since 2005 a Bencher of Middle Temple (and a member of its Estates Committee). He sits as a chair on Bar Disciplinary Tribunals and was for some years on the Bar Council's Race Relations Committee.

He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Hull and member of the Standards Committee of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

He has also taught part time at the following Oxford Colleges: Christ Church, Lincoln and St Hughs, and at the Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University). He judges moots at Universities and has sat on university disciplinary bodies.

John has acted in the landmark case brought by gay servicemen to remove the ban on their serving in the armed forces R v Secretary of State for Defence ex p. Smith 1996 IRLR 100 
and other important discrimination cases such as Wilkin & Chapman v Collins ( discrimination against transvestites ) 
Anisetti v Tokyo-Mitsubishi International Plc ( race discrimination on grounds of non Japanese nationality). 
Shepherd v N Yorkshire CC 2006 IRLR 190; EAT case on distinction between Sex discrimination and equal pay; 
Chessington World of Adventures v Reed 1998 ICR 97 EAT ( transsexuals and sex discrimination ). 
Rachel Anderson v The Professional Footballers' Association ( a sex discrimination claim brought by a footballers agent who was refused access to the PFA dinner). 
Mathews v Kent & Medway Fire Authority: 2004 IRLR 697 HL first case on part time workers regulations; largest ever ET case involving about 11000 retained firefighters; 
Redfearn v Serco 2006 IRLR 623; CA leading case on meaning of direct discrimination:

John acted for a claimant who sued a local auction house which failed to identify that a picture was painted by Stubbs Luxmore May v Messenger May Baverstock He also appeared in the House of Lords in Wright v BRB (level of interest on personal injury awards) and Baker v Kaye 1997 IRLR 219 HC (duty of care of doctor carrying out pre-employment medicals)

John acts for both employers and employees and has been involved in many ground breaking cases such as

Dunnachie v Hull CC: (HL decision as to whether an employee may claim for injury to feelings in unfair dismissal claim) 
Whitbread v Mills 1988 IRLR 388 EAT ( leading case on role of appeals in unfair dismissal cases ) 
Crosville ( Wales Ltd ) v Tracey 1993 IRLR 60 ( House of Lords decision on industrial action and contributory fault ) 
Wood v Cunard Lines Ltd 1990 IRLR 281 EAT ( extent of unfair dismissal rights for merchant seamen) 
Hogg v Dover College 1990 ICR 39 EAT ( proper test of dismissal when one contract terminates and another is offered ). 
Gale v Northern General Hospitals 1994 IRLR 292 CA ( continuity of employment in NHS Trusts ) 
Connolly v Sellars Arenascene; 2001 ICR 760 Ct appeal decision on whether a director may also be an employee of a company for insolvency purposes 
Bunce v Postworth (Court of Appeal decision on meaning of employee in context of agency worker) 
Gover v Property Care Ltd 2006 EWCA Civ 286: CA case on Polkey reductions in unfair dismissal;