John Bowers KC
Principal
After attending Clee Grammar School, Cleethorpes, I studied at Lincoln College, Oxford.
I was called to the Bar in 1979 and took silk in 1998. I have practised primarily in employment law and human rights. I have been described in a review as “an employment law rock star”.
I have acted in most of the major industrial disputes over the past decades. My landmark cases include a European Court of Human Rights application on the employment of gay servicemen and the largest ever Employment Tribunal application by 12,000 retained firefighters.
A frequent lecturer on employment law, I have written 16 books including the recently published ‘Downward Spiral’ on the collapsing public standards in Britain. I am a CEDR trained mediator. I sit out of term as a Deputy High Court Judge. Since 2005 I have been a Bencher of Middle Temple.
Atkins Court Forms Volume 38 1986 (with B A Hepple), Butterworths, and 1991, 1995, 2003, 2007 and 2011
Atkins Court Forms on Discrimination and Employment, 2011 Lexis Nexis
Basic Procedure in Courts and Tribunals – (with E Misra) Longmans, 1990; republished in 2011 by Wildys
Bowers on Employment Law, Seventh Edition 2004 OUP; now known as Practical Approach to Employment Law. Currently eighth edition 2008
Bullen & Leake on Pleadings, Sweet & Maxwell 1995 Edition on Employment
Civil Appeals Sweet & Maxwell Chapter on the Employment Appeal Tribunal 2013 Sweet & Maxwell
Downward Spiral 2024 MUP
The Employment Act 1988 (with S Auerbach), Blackstone Press.
The Employment Law Manual 1998 (Chapter on Tribunals) – Sweet & Maxwell.
Employment Law and Human Rights (with J. Lewis) Sweet and Maxwell 2000
Employment Law Update (with A. Goraj) Blackstone 1991
Employment Tribunal Procedure 1987, 1994, 1999 Longmans, Second Edition with D Brown & G Mead: regularly revised. Now republished by OUP every year since 2005, as Blackstones Employment Law Practice
Getting a New Job – Consumer Association, 1981.
Modern Law of Strikes (1987) now known as The Law of Industrial Action and Trade Union Recognition (with Michael Duggan) OUP 2011
Termination of Employment, 1998, 1991 Second Edition Longmans; 2010 Third edition with C. Davis, Wildys
Textbook on Employment Law – (with S. Honeyball) OUP, Eleventh Edition 2010
Transfer of Undertakings Encyclopedia: first published as The Legal Pitfalls, 1996 (with Mr Justice Elias), now in Sixth Edition (with various other authors) – Sweet & Maxwell (regularly updated).
Whistleblowing the New Law (with J. Lewis, M. Fodder and J. Mitchell) OUP 2nd edition 2012