Benji Gourgey
Associate solicitor
Benji Gourgey is an associate solicitor in the international and group litigation team
Benji is an associate solicitor in the international and group litigation team, specialising in environmental and human rights claimant-side litigation.
Legal expertise
Benji is working on a number of environmental cases, including representing members of the community of the polluted River Wye catchment in a private and public nuisance claim against members of the U.S. Cargill group for the environmental destruction allegedly caused by their large-scale industrial poultry operations; and representing Jo Bateman, a wild swimmer and environmental campaigner, in her claim against South West Water over allegations their pollution made the waters off Exmouth beach unsafe to swim in.
Benji is also assisting a group of Bangladeshi and Nepali migrant workers in their claim against two Dyson UK companies and a Dyson Malaysian company over alleged forced labour and dangerous working and living conditions at a Malaysian factory.
Before joining Leigh Day, Benji trained at a leading international law firm where he qualified in September 2019. At his previous firm, Benji acted for commercial clients on complex and high value civil disputes, including multi-jurisdictional arbitrations concerning renewable energy infrastructure. Benji also worked on complex internal investigations into alleged corporate wrongdoing.
Education
Durham University – History (undergraduate degree)
University of Law – GDL and LPC
Legal claim launched for Exmouth businesses impacted by sewage spills
Businesses and residents in Exmouth who say they have suffered as a result of South West Water sewage pollution have launched a groundbreaking legal claim led by law firm Leigh Day.
UK Supreme Court holds that water companies can be liable for sewage pollution of UK waters
Leigh Day environmental private law partner Oliver Holland and associates Celine O’Donovan and Benji Gourgey on the Supreme Court’s judgment on the liability of water companies for discharging sewage, and the wider impact of the decision on the environmental issues facing the UK.
Multi-million-pound legal claim launched to compensate people living near River Wye for pollution allegedly caused by chicken producers
A legal claim potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds has been launched by law firm Leigh Day in a bid to compensate thousands of people living in the Wye catchment likely to have been affected by a major degradation of the River Wye and its tributaries in recent years.