Employment & HRLaw

Employing people is a serious business investment.

When it goes right it delivers untold benefits on both sides. When it goes wrong, it can be devastating for a business’ finances or its reputation.

Working at the heart of the City of London, our team have a deserved reputation as market leading advisers on people issues. Our collective experience ensures that we provide comprehensive strategic advice and solutions to in house lawyers, HR teams and senior management teams.

We are trusted by many professional services firms to support them on their employment issues and are proud to be the “go to” team. We guarantee to provide you with a partner-led, commercial and cost-effective service in the UK and internationally, through our network of trusted employment and labour lawyers.

We have a genuine understanding of issues that impact on HR professionals, reinforced through our close links with CIPD and CityHR, the HR association for the financial services sector.

We recognise that the management of people issues involves more than just knowledge of employment law. We work in partnership with our clients to seamlessly manage these issues. Our team includes specialists in employment, IP, data protection, High Court litigation, tax and incentives, partnership, regulatory issues, investigations and white collar crime.

Employment & HRLaw experience

• Led two independent fact-finding investigations on behalf of the Confederation of British Industry, following the allegations of misconduct and criminality reported by The Guardian.

• Represented Kuwait Investment Office in the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal in relation to immunity proceedings (2020/21)

• Acted for fintech firm Pockit in its appeal against a claim and judgment which were never received or known about (2020/21)

• Represented investment firm C5 Capital in its successful defence of a claim for whistleblowing interim relief in the Employment Tribunal (2020)

• Acted for Michelin-starred chef Alyn Williams in his successful claim of unfair dismissal against The Westbury Hotel (2020)

• Advised Eric Daniels, the former CEO of Lloyds Banking Group, in his high-profile claim against the Bank

• Successfully represented a leading sports organisation in both the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in respect of a senior employee’s attempts to be re-engaged by the organisation following his dismissal on capability grounds

• Acted for a number of former directors, officers and managers of a former international listed company defending a long-running whistleblowing claim.  Obtained an award of costs and the strike out of the entire claim

• Acted for Chelsea Football Club and José Mourinho in the defence of high profile employment tribunal proceedings brought by Dr. Eva Carneiro

• Acted for Mr Curless in his discrimination claim against Shell including in his appeal to the Court of Appeal on the scope of legal advice privilege

• Represented Mr Beevers in the well-publicised and high-value whistleblowing claim against his former employer FICC Markets Standard Board

• Acted for Vestra Wealth LLP against UBS Wealth Management in one of the largest team moves seen in the City of London and in respect of which UBS issued an application for injunctive relief to prevent the move from happening. The principles derived from the case are now routinely used both by parties wishing to orchestrate a team move and parties wishing to prevent them

• Acted for Mr Geys (Société Générale v Geys) in the Supreme Court in which Mr Geys was awarded a termination payment of approx €12.5m and established legal precedents on repudiatory breaches of employment contracts and “payment in lieu of notice” clauses