Naomi Cunningham
Naomi Brigid Cunningham is a British discrimination and employment lawyer. Until 1 December 2025, she was chair of Sex Matters.
Early life and education
Cunningham was born to Charles and Ann Cunningham, both of whom worked for GCHQ. Her father, Charles Cunningham, was born and brought up in Glasgow. He graduated university with a first-class degree in Classics and worked as a secondary school teacher in Glasgow. Following the outbreak of World War II, he was recruited as a cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park. He remained in employment with its post-war successor organisation, GCHQ. At the end of her father's career at GCHQ, when he was 57, he took a sabbatical to train as a barrister. He returned to GCHQ, where he worked until he was 60 and earned his pension, then began practising law. Cunningham was raised in Gloucestershire, England. She had a brother, Giles, who died from suicide.Cunningham attended the University of Reading, where she studied mathematics before switching to the law programme. In 1991, she graduated with an LLB in Law. Thereafter, she attended the University of Bristol, where she undertook postgraduate studies in law, graduating with an LLM in 1992. She then enrolled on the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law, which she completed in 1993.
Career
Cunningham began practising employment law in 1994. She is self employed working at Outer Temple Chambers. She has said her practice litigating cases involving women's rights "reignited" her interest in law and her career.Cunningham was named The Times Lawyer of the Week in May 2024 for her work representing social worker Rachel Meade in a case finding that Social Work England and Westminster City Council had discriminated against Meade based on her gender-critical beliefs. Cunningham also represented Roz Adams in her successful 2024 employment tribunal claim against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, and social worker Lizzy Pitt in a 2024 employment tribunal claim against Cambridgeshire County Council alleging harassment related to her sexual orientation-related and gender-critical beliefs. Cunningham counselled 'Sarah Summers' against The Survivors Network to secure single sex services for women after trauma sustained from sexual abuse. Cunningham represented nurse Sandie Peggie in Peggie v NHS Fife, filed in 2024, in which Peggie has alleged sexual harassment and belief discrimination against NHS Fife and Dr. Beth Upton, a trans woman and doctor at Victoria Hospital.
Views
Cunningham has described herself as "broadly 'gender critical'". In 2021, Cunningham co-founded Sex Matters, an advocacy group opposing transgender rights in the United Kingdom. She served as its board's chair until 1 December 2025.In 2021, Cunningham's inclusion in a panel discussion on conversion therapy hosted by the Middle Temple LGBTQ+ Forum was the subject of controversy, with more than 100 members of the Inn, other barristers, and law students signing an open letter describing Cunningham as "anti-trans" and calling for the event to be postponed. The event proceeded as planned, although Middle Temple offered refunds to those who no longer wished to attend.