An academic who led a government review on sex and gender data collection has warned she is prepared to sue the University of Bristol after protesters disrupted her invited lecture, arguing the university failed to protect freedom of expression. Professor Alice Sullivan says the disturbance deterred some attendees and that the university should have taken stronger steps to prevent intimidation. The university maintains the event proceeded safely but acknowledged 'unacceptable disruption.' The case has been escalated to the Office for Students (OfS), and the dispute comes as England’s new higher-education free-speech law heightens institutional obligations to protect visiting speakers while balancing protest rights. Higher-ed leaders should note the operational and legal stakes: institutions must update event-risk assessments, mitigation strategies and communications plans that reconcile protest management, speaker safety and regulatory compliance under the new statutory framework. Documentation of university actions before and during contested events will be crucial if legal claims follow.