Claims discrimination during his PhD
A Cambridge law graduate is suing the university after failing his PhD, claiming it cost him a lucrative barrister position.
Jacob Meagher is taking on the prestigious uni after he didn’t pass the “viva voce” oral examination of his thesis, resulting in what he argues is the loss of a tenancy offer at “a particular set of chambers”.
Taking his claim to the High Court, Meagher is seeking damages for the “substantial loss of earnings” he claims has resulted from his failed PhD.
His claim has already faced a setback, as Mr Justice Constable denied Meagher permission to sue individual members of the university’s academic staff. However, the judge confirmed that the law graduate — now a qualified barrister — still has the option to pursue a breach of contract claim against the university.
In a public judgment it was revealed that Meagher alleges “disability discrimination and victimisation of various kinds under the Equality Act 2010, breach of contract and breach of common law duty of care”. The uni’s criteria for awarding the qualification, Meagher argues, placed him at a “substantial disadvantage”.
In addition to submitting a 100,000-word thesis, the barrister’s PhD also required an oral interview with two examiners to assess his ideas and arguments.
Whilst the interviewers “declined to recommend the award of PhD”, they did indicate that Meagher “should be allowed to revise his thesis and resubmit it”, rather than be rejected outright.
In his discrimination claim Meagher argues that he is “less able than other candidates of the same ability to produce a singular lengthy and multifaceted piece of work such as a PhD thesis”. He says that the university should have allowed him to have been “assessed other than by way of a thesis”.
Part of this alternative assessment would include the implementation guidelines produced by the university’s Disability Resource Centre. These include, he says, requirements that the viva voce examiners use specific rather than general questions, and allow Meagher breaks and pauses after questions to allow him to “mentally retrieve the words or information that he needed in order to answer”.
Meagher was called to the bar back in 2018 and is currently a door tenant at London’s 1EC Barristers, where his specialisms include education law and discrimination.
His profile lists a range of qualifications including an LLB, LLM, Msc, MBA, PGCE, and various other postgraduate qualifications across financial, legal, and medical fields. He has also been awarded the ‘Freedom of the City of London’, and beyond England and Wales has been admitted to the bar’s of Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.
Both Meagher and Cambridge Uni were approached for comment.