The Public Sector Equality Duty cuts across all areas of social housing.  Social landlords have a duty to comply with it in relation to everyone they deal with who has a protected characteristic.  Millie and Donna will look at the latest developments in relation to the Public Sector Equality Duty and provide some worked examples on how to best comply with it.

Millie Polimac

Millie is ranked as a leading junior in the field of social housing in both Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.  She acts for landlords across the range of issues and has experience in both trial work and appeals to the higher courts. She has acted in some of the leading cases in this area including Aldwyck HA v Forward [2019] EWCA Civ 1334, R (on the application of Parveen) v Redbridge LBC [2020] EWCA Civ 194, Alibkhiet v London Borough of Brent [2018] EWCA Civ 2742 and Watkins v AMSH [2019] Env. L.R. 2.  Millie has a particular interest in the interaction between housing law, public law and human rights. In 2019 she was appointed to the Equality and Human Rights Panel of Counsel and in 2025 she was appointed to the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel.

Donna McCarthy

Donna is a Consultant in Devonshires’ Housing Management & Property Litigation team. A housing management lawyer with 35 years’ experience, she moved into this role in April 2025 after 15 years as partner and head of department where she managed a team of 85 lawyers and support staff. Donna’s broad practice has covered everything from complex litigation to drafting and advising on strategic and operational housing management issues, with specialism in Equality Act compliance. Acknowledged as a lawyer at the very top of her profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for her longstanding involvement in market-leading work, she is ranked in the Legal 500 ‘Hall of Fame’.

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