Overview

 Employment Law Firm of the Year

 

Employment law advice is often business critical and urgent in nature. Our award-winning employment lawyers help you navigate the complexities of employment law so that you can focus on your core business. 

We work with you to make employment matters straightforward and easy to manage so that decision-making is simplified. Known for our pragmatic and commercial approach, our employment lawyers draw on their extensive experience to provide our clients with clear, concise, well-presented solutions.

We provide employment law advice to clients in the UK, and across the world through an international network of leading independent law firms. We work for FTSE 100 and 250 listed companies and major public sector employers as well as smaller companies, those in the not for profit sector and for senior executives. We regularly advise on high profile and business critical projects for these clients, including identifying and managing ESG risks and opportunities.

As one of the largest teams of employment lawyers in the UK, we are active in helping to shape UK employment law and participate actively in numerous employment law organisations and committees. As a firm, ESG sits at the heart of our business philosophy and we enjoy advising and collaborating with our clients on ESG initiatives to help them achieve ambitions for their people, wider community and business.

We are also responsible for the drafting and subsequent maintenance the model restrictive covenant clause bank suite and various business immigration notes for leading online HR resource, XpertHR.

We keep our clients and contacts up to date with the latest news and updates in digestible and user-friendly formats including our fortnightly e-bulletin, Passle blogs, videocasts, webinars and roundtable events. If you would like to receive our regular employment updates please sign up to our mailing list.

Areas of focus

Our primary services include the following:

Experience

Providing day to day advice to Thomson Reuters including a fixed cost telephone and email helpline service. Also advising on specific projects such as outsourcing arrangements in the Asia Pacific and Europe regions, and on a range of complex employment tribunal claims, including claims in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, an age discrimination claim by a senior executive and a number of multi-jurisdictional cases.

Advising FirstGroup plc on complex employment tribunal claims, including advising successfully on a Working Time case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal and large scale, strategic HR projects such as holiday pay and gender pay reporting. Also advising on industrial action, senior executive severance, settlement agreements, and the employment aspects, including TUPE, of various mobilisations and demobilisations of rail franchises.

Advising Bank of Ireland on general employment matters including unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, redundancy, disciplinary matters (including misconduct and poor performance), discrimination, settlement agreements, equal pay and ill-health. Advising on the implementation of the Senior Managers Regime and FCA/PRA compliance. Providing a wide range of employment training to the HR and legal teams.

Advising Babcock International Group plc on collective agreements, collective consultation (both for redundancy and TUPE purposes) and dealing with disputes with trade unions. Also advising on a number of complex HR projects (including holiday pay) and employment tribunal cases, including successfully defending a multi-party discrimination claim listed for a ten day hearing and managing collective TUPE claims brought by 600 former employees following Babcock Rail's assumption of maintenance activities following the incumbent provider going into administration.

Providing day to day employment advice to BAE Systems including a fixed fee helpline service and a fixed fee employment tribunal service. Also advising on more complex matters including high profile restructurings and successfully defending employment tribunal claims and appeals to the EAT.

Advising John Lewis Partnership and Waitrose in defending a wide range of employment tribunal claims including discrimination and unfair dismissal. Support has included preparation of defences, conduct of preliminary hearings and strategic advice on the conduct of claims.

Advising Office for Students on day to day employment law issues, including internal grievance and disciplinary procedures, complex employment tribunal proceedings, successfully conducting a three day judicial mediation, drafting contracts of employment, secondment agreements and contractor agreements, and advising on the implications of TUPE in various wider public sector restructures.

Advising the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on TUPE and the conduct of internal grievances and resolution of workplace disputes. Also advising on complex matters such as a major outsourcing project across 12 jurisdictions in Europe.

Advising the Department for Education on the creation of the Doncaster Children's Services Trust (the first of its kind) and on the TUPE transfer of c.450 employees from Doncaster Council to the Trust.

Advising WEX Europe on the HR and employment issues arising following the acquisition of a fuel services and credit card company across nine European jurisdictions.

Advising Ascent Flight Management on the TUPE and employment aspects of the Ministry of Defence's 25 year £6 billion procurement of the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS).

Advising the European Space Agency as part of a pan-European legal project reviewing the employment status of, and the contractual arrangements governing, the ESA’s atypical workforce.

Providing day to day advice to the University of Bristol's in-house legal and HR teams, including a major review of the University’s Statutes and Ordinances, defending complex discrimination cases, supporting major restructuring projects and providing training on HR related topics including age and disability discrimination and the conduct of internal investigations.

Advising The Crown Estate on a restructuring of the HR team, the impact of Scottish devolution on employee rights and provision of a helpline covering the full range of employment queries across the client and throughout the UK.

Meet the team
Headshot of Adrian Martin

Adrian Martin Partner

  • Head of Employment
  • TUPE: Business Transfers and Outsourcing
  • Restructuring and Redundancy
Roger Bull

Roger Bull Managing Partner

  • Managing Partner 
  • Employment Disputes
  • Strategic HR Projects
Headshot of Chris Seaton

Chris Seaton Senior Partner

  • Senior Partner
  • Employment
  • Partnerships
Luke Bowery

Luke Bowery Partner

  • Employment
  • Restructuring and Redundancy
  • Equality, Diversity and Discrimination
Headshot of Katie Russell

Katie Russell Partner

  • Employment
  • Financial Services
  • Sport
James Green

James Green Director

  • Employment
  • Financial Services
  • Employment Disputes
Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron Director

  • Employment
  • Business Immigration Services
  • Employment Disputes

What others say...

The employment team's key strengths are expertise, the practical application of that expertise, and partnership working. I have rarely worked with an external legal team that can embed itself so well into the culture of an organisation and yet retain such objectivity and insight. Their collaborative working, particularly during the pandemic, has been outstanding.
The Legal 500 2022

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