About

Arpita Dutt has been a campaigning employment lawyer for over 25 years and a partner in leading national firms. She was recognised as a ‘Hot 100’ lawyer by ‘The Lawyer’ publication. Top ranked in national legal directories, she is reputed as a litigator of complex, high-profile equality and whistleblowing cases across the public and private sectors and an acclaimed negotiator of high value settlements for her clients.

Arpita founded City employment law firm, BDBF LLP in 2012 until 2021 when she established her own consultancy in investigations and mediation.

Arpita now uses the insights from the hundreds of clients she has advised to focus on conducting independent workplace investigations, particularly reputationally impactive, sensitive disputes. Arpita is also an international accredited mediator and is a certified psychological safety assessor. She is trained in transformative mediation and facilitative dialogue techniques successfully used in inter-personal and board level disputes. After obtaining an MSc from SOAS in Violence, Conflict and Development in 2021, she trained in international armed conflict and peace mediation at Swiss Peace. 

In 2023, she was appointed as an independent review board member of the national health regulator, the CQC, to investigate how the CQC deals with whistleblowing concerns, leading to a report with 84 recommendations. She was retained to evaluate implementation of the recommendations.  

Arpita has studied Public Policy Analysis at the LSE and is an advocate for policy change, a thought leader and trainer in equality and whistleblowing law, policy and procedure.  She has presented on the topic of protections for whistleblowers at many conferences including the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Lithuania in June 2024, and on best practice in investigations for the Industrial Law Society in September 2024 to HR Directors, Judges, KCs and lawyers. She  is a member of the APPG on Anti-Corruption and Fair Business Banking. 

Arpita helped launch the UK’s first sexual harassment helpline in 2019 for the charity Rights of Women and continues to be a helpline adviser and Advisory Committee member.  Arpita chairs working parties and has drafted several government and regulatory consultation responses as a member of the Employment Lawyers Association’s Legislative and Policy Committee. With a long history leading and working in partnership with civil society organisations, she is presently Chair of the Board of Trustees of whistleblowing research charity, Parrhesia.