About

I qualified into employment law over 15 years ago so have spent almost two decades working on advisory, tribunal and transactional matters. My work has spanned across all areas of employment law, from day-to-day matters such as disciplinaries and grievances to TUPE, restructures, complex discrimination investigations and whistleblowing tribunal claims. I've spent almost 3 years working in-house with clients. My in-house experience has given me great insight and understanding of the pressures and opportunities in-house teams face, enabling me to deliver succinct and commercial advice tailored to each situation.

I became a Partner in 2015 and then moved to Lewis Silkin's rockhopper / LSIH team in 2020. I work part-time and am largely home based, allowing me to work for a top firm at the same time as having that all important work life balance!

I've previously acted as a mentor in both the Law Society's Diversity Access Scheme and Lewis Silkin's social mobility mentoring scheme, and have twice represented the CBI at the ILO's annual UN convention in Geneva.

Experience

Employment tribunals

  • Conducting a wide range of disputes, individual and multi-party, from pre-litigation through to settlement, ET and EAT, both solely and working within large legal teams, including advocacy and conducting Judicial Mediation
  • Drafting merits advice, pleadings, statements, submissions, costs warnings / schedules
  • Project managing several large litigation matters, including leading a witness evidence process in relation to a separate multi-Claimant (50 plus) discrimination ET action, involving interviewing over 40 witnesses at a client's site, briefing the senior management team as to the strength of evidence and timetabling witness appearances over a 7-week hearing

Restructuring and projects

  • Working on and leading employment aspects of numerous high value restructuring and integration projects (collective redundancy, TUPE, changes to terms and conditions, acquisitions, positioning post-merger senior executive exits)
  • Providing extensive advice to clients on managing employment relations issues regarding trade unions and collective dispute resolution, including on industrial action
  • Advising on the establishment and training of staff representative bodies, staff associations and consultative committees

Advisory & training

  • Fielding ad hoc queries from clients spanning from startups to plc's, across a broad range of sectors. Support has ranged from discreet advice in the background, such as advice on settlement or assisting in managing ill health issues, through to acting on the record, for example in relation to TUPE disputes
  • Advising on equality matters, agency worker issues, employee status, working time, minimum wage, holiday pay and post termination restriction matters
  • Drafting employment contracts, handbooks and bespoke policies
  • Designing, drafting and delivering practical legal training to clients, ranging from hour long to two-day training sessions, across a wide variety of topics and audiences

In-house experience

  • In-house at a technology company for 1 year as EMEA Employment Counsel
  • In-house at a media company for 8 months as UK Employment Counsel
  • Informal secondments to other businesses including a large plc and defence company
  • Advising on restructures, business integration, collective changes to terms and conditions, corporate communications, litigation, TUPE, and general day-to-day HR and ER matters, including complex investigations

Services

Sectors