Sarah Gibbons | Associate Solicitor
Associate Solicitor
Sarah is an Associate Solicitor, working in the international department, specialising in litigation arising from human rights abuses involving multinational corporations.
Sarah joined Leigh Day as a paralegal in the international department in January 2021. She started her training contract with Leigh Day in September 2022.
Sarah presently assists partners Sapna Malik and Melanie Jacques in a claim against Unilever Plc on behalf of a group of over 80 Kenyan women who allege that they have been subjected to sexual assault, sexual harassment, and/or other forms of serious mistreatment by men who were employed to work on Unilever's former tea estates in Kericho, Kenya.
Previous experience
Prior to joining Leigh Day, Sarah worked in several NGO, paralegal and researcher roles in South Africa, Australia, Zambia and the UK.
Education
Sarah obtained an LLB from the University of Warwick in 2011. She completed a MA in international development from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in 2016 and recently obtained a distinction in the LPC.
Committees
Sarah is a member of the firm’s Women’s Committee.
The role of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in protecting the most vulnerable: Operational Grievance Mechanisms for women in agribusiness
Melanie Jacques and Sarah Gibbons begin the International Day of Violence Against Women series with a focus on violence against women in the agricultural sector. They discuss the role of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as a tool for developing effective Operational Grievance Mechanisms as a means by which women can raise concerns and complaints about the human rights impacts of the operations in which they work.
The 2022 Men’s World Cup – it is not enough to pay lip service to human rights in Qatar
Sarah Gibbons, Richard Meeran and Harminder Bains discuss the many criticisms of the World Cup host state of Qatar in the context of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the lack of significant action to affect meaningful change in the host state.
COP27 and beyond: Financing Loss and Damage from Climate Change
Katharina Theil, solicitor and trainee Sarah Gibbons, in the international team, discuss the calls to provide financial assistance to address loss and damage, a key agenda item in the UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt, as well as other legal routes in the fight for climate justice.