Dan Leader-Activist Lawyers in the midst of Goliaths

The Rights of Others

In this episode we talk to Dan Leader, partner in the British law firm LeighDay. Daniel specialises in international human rights and environmental law, with a particular focus on business and human rights. He has extensive experience of cases against parent companies, complex group actions and mass tort claims, as well as cross-border disputes and jurisdictional issues. He has was external expert member of the UK Government Steering Board which oversees the implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2014-17). Since 2018 he has been a Board Member of the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) and is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the comparative law project on civil liability for human rights violations at the Bonavero Institute, Oxford University and a member of the Advisory Board of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law’s Human Rights Due Diligence Forum. He writes and speaks widely about business and human rights issues at conferences and universities in Britain and internationally.
His recent cases include:

• Rihan v EY Global Ltd [2020]. A whistle-blowing claim on behalf of a former EY partner who refused to sanction a cover up of audit findings of money laundering and conflict minerals in the Dubai Gold trade.
• Lungowe v Vedanta plc [2019] (with Martyn Day and Oliver Holland). Claims on behalf of 1,826 Zambian farmers arising out of damage to the environment caused by harmful discharges from the Konkola copper mine. The Supreme Court set out the jurisdictional principles in cross-border claims against parent companies.
• Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell plc [2018]. Claims on behalf of two Nigerian communities arising from systemic oil pollution by Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary.
• AAA v. Unilever plc [2018]. A case on behalf of 218 Kenyan tea workers who contend that Unilever failed to protect them from the foreseeable risk of ethnic violence in 2007.
• AAA v. Gemfields Ltd [2019] A claim by 300 individuals for personal injury arising out of serious human rights abuses on and around a ruby mine in northern Mozambique.
• The Bodo Community v. Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd [2015] (with Martyn Day). A claim by a community of 30,000 Nigerians for compensation and remediation of their lands arising out of extensive oil spills in the Niger Delta which settled for £55m in 2015.

Other cases include the landmark “Mau Mau litigation” (Mutua v FCO [2013]) which resulted in reparations for 5,000 victims of colonial era torture at the hands of the British colonial authorities, the Baha Mousa Inquiry [2010] into torture by the British Army in Iraq and claims by UK residents detained in Guantanamo Bay against airlines for complicity in rendition (Binyan Mohamed v Jeppesen [2009]).
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