Employment rights

The team advises on the rights and liabilities of employers and employees at all stages of the employment relationship.

We advise on the recruitment process, the documentation required and the particular issues that arise when recruits owe ongoing obligations to previous employers.  We regularly advise on the dynamics of team moves which are becoming ever-more complex as the law in this area develops.

We assist in the drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks, and the formulation of policies and procedures.  We advise on the implementation of incentive arrangements, whether cash, share or option based, and whether short or long term.  We recognise the purposes of such schemes and tailor them to the particular ambitions and needs of our clients and we help our clients understand and navigate the changing public perception and regulatory regime around such arrangements.

As well as our domestic work in this area, we also have an international expertise in formulating the contractual arrangements for expatriate executives.

We provide day-to-day support to our HR clients on the regular issues they face – for example, procedures for poor performance, grievances and conduct problems, data protection, atypical working arrangements and parental rights of any kind.  We also keep our clients abreast of, and help them implement, necessary changes to reflect the constant changes to our employment law.

When the employment relationship ends or breaks down we represent our clients in all kinds of employment related claims.  In the employment tribunal we handle claims for unfair dismissal, unlawful discrimination of all kinds and whistleblowing based claims.  In the High Court we are involved in bonus and other breach of contract disputes, as well as proceedings to protect confidential information and to enforce post termination restrictive covenants and otherwise protect an employer’s legitimate business interests against unfair competition.

We have individuals with extensive advocacy and mediation experience.

Experience

Resolving discrimination claims
Acting for an investment bank in relation to allegations of race, sex and disability discrimination claim brought by an existing senior member of staff.  We advised the bank on all stages of the process from handling the employee's grievance and appeal through to negotiating a settlement of subsequent tribunal proceedings. We negotiated the difficult issues thrown up by dealing with an acrimonious dispute with a senior, ongoing employee.

Whistleblowing claim
Advising a senior and highly remunerated ex-employee on a multimillion pound whistleblowing claim against a major international investment bank.  The claim arose out of a decision by the bank to close a particular area of business.  With the assistance of our specialist financial services and regulatory team we advised the individual and his colleagues on the implications of the decision itself and its legal and regulatory implications and their responsibilities.  We subsequently pursued a claim for unfair dismissal based on whistleblowing in the Employment Tribunal. 

Recruitment
Advising a long standing client on the recruitment of a large number of individuals from a major competitor to establish a new office for our client.  The work involved detailed and careful advice on the strategy, avoiding any risk of a breach by any of the individuals of their obligations to their previous employer.  Once the individuals had resigned, we were involved in giving detailed advice to them about their obligations and rights during the remainder of their employment with the old employer. This also involved advising a number of them on disciplinary proceedings commenced by that employer against them.  Once their employment had ended, we gave ongoing and detailed legal and strategic advice on the post termination restrictive covenants applicable to them and on how clients could transfer to our client within the confines of those covenants.

Remuneration
We advised a long standing client in the financial services sector on the creation and implementation of a global long term incentive and retention scheme.  We helped formulate the strategic plan to maximise the retentive benefits of the scheme and then implemented that plan in the most tax effective way in the UK.  We then liaised with counsel in a large number of jurisdictions around the globe to implement the arrangements in the most tax efficient way in each of those jurisdictions, seeking throughout to retain as much uniformity across the group as possible.