Gemma de Cordova

Profile

Gemma is known for staying calm under pressure and is often sought after due to her composed, thorough and common sense approach to her work.

Gemma has always had a passion for advocacy and enjoys regular appearances in courts and tribunals across the country, including the High Court and the LVT.   Her measured approach means that she is also a very able negotiator. 

Gemma makes a valued contribution to three teams in Chambers: Property, Employment and Business & Commercial.  Often her instructions of a business and commercial nature overlap with her work in the property and employment fields.

Gemma’s interests include music, singing, travel and languages.  She enjoys catching up with family and friends, which involves frequent trips down the M4 to Bristol where she grew up.

Experience

Property

Gemma has increasing experience in disputes regarding the non-payment of service charges and ground rent and readily advises on the construction of service charge provisions and particular difficulties that can arise with older leases.

In Leasehold Enfranchisement, Gemma advises and acts in both 1967 and 1993 Act cases and has particular familiarity with missing landlord claims.

Gemma appears regularly in all manner of residential and commercial landlord and tenant disputes and her practice covers a broad range of issues including the creation of tenancies; the validity of notices; the construction of leases; rent review provisions; breach of covenant; death of a landlord/tenant; compliance with tenancy deposit schemes and claims for compensation.  With respect to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, Gemma has a particular interest in a landlord’s “intention” under grounds f and g.

Gemma has noticed an increasing number of instructions in claims against trespassers and is able to advise on the full range of options for the recovery of land.

Often Gemma is instructed by local authorities and registered social landlords in cases involving anti-social behaviour and other breaches of tenancies in order to obtain injunctions or appropriate undertakings.  Gemma is keen to see how this area develops, particularly in the context of the rioting seen across the Capital and elsewhere in the country during August 2011.

In real property, Gemma’s work spans boundary disputes, adverse possession, negligence and nuisance actions.  Gemma also deals with applications under the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992.  Gemma has seen a growth in instructions from both banks and mortgagors in disputes regarding the repayment of mortgages and other loans.

Gemma advises on injunction applications arising in relation to property disputes and has experience in the High Court.   In particular she assisted Philip Rainey QC (leading Carl Fain) in the reported case of ‘The New Northumbria Hotel Limited v Maymask (148) LLP [2010] EWHC 1273 (Ch)’, involving questions of a landlord’s rights/obligations upon forfeiture and a successful application for the delivery up of the commercial tenant’s chattels. 

Employment

Gemma receives a wide range of instructions in the employment field and is a contributor to case commentaries on Lawtel and the Chambers’ newsletter. 

Recently Gemma represented a local authority facing claims of race, age and disability discrimination and unfair dismissal.  At a PHR, Gemma successfully argued for the majority of the claims to be struck out on the ground that they had no reasonable prospects of success.  An isolated complaint of race victimisation was successfully resisted at a full hearing.

Gemma receives regular instructions from one of London’s largest transport companies.  Currently she is acting in an ongoing case where her client is one of a number of transport companies who are Respondents alongside a London borough, to claims brought by 9 Claimants for unfair and wrongful dismissal and redundancy and holiday pay.  The key issue in the case concerns the application of TUPE when contracts between a local authority and a contractor come to an end and the local authority runs a fresh tender process, resulting in the redistribution of work.

Acting for claimants, Gemma has experience of pursuing claims against national rail companies, hospitals and other large organisations.  Gemma recently acted for a claimant pursuing claims of unfair dismissal and age discrimination against an advertising company.  The company sought to justify the dismissal on the basis that the claimant’s technical abilities were not sufficiently advanced for the modern advertising industry.  The matter did not proceed to a full hearing, but resulted in a financial settlement for her client.

Gemma has a particular interest in equal treatment claims and misconduct dismissals, particularly where social media is involved.  She has recently represented an employer resisting claims brought by employees who had been dismissed as a result of comments posted on Facebook.

Gemma is able to employ the balance of sensitivity and robustness required when acting against litigants in person. 

Gemma is a keen participant in the judicial mediation scheme.

Business and Commercial

Gemma has vast practical experience of acting for parties in commercial disputes from the advisory stage and drafting proceedings through to case management hearings and trials.  She often represents clients at a range of procedural hearings including applications to set aside default judgment; applications for summary judgment; setting aside/varying orders; relief from sanctions and extensions of time.

Gemma has acted in a range of disputes including actions for breach of contract; consumer contracts; package holidays; mobile phone contracts; and sale of goods (and services) disputes. 

Gemma advises on jurisdictional matters and on injunction applications.  She enjoys advising on matters involving the construction of legal documents.

Gemma’s experience also covers a variety of debt recovery and enforcement options including applications for charging order and third party debt order applications and bankruptcy petitions.  Gemma represents clients in proceedings before the Registrars in the Companies court and Masters in the High Court.

Gemma’s skills lend themselves to alternative dispute resolution. 

Property Bar Association

Chancery Bar Association

Employment Lawyers Association

Qualifications

LLB Law and German (Surrey)