Watershed

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Mark Clayton

Mark Clayton qualified as a solicitor with Kuits and has years of experience advising HR personnel and senior managers on all aspects of employment law, including disciplinary and grievance issues, performance and sickness absence management, Equality Act issues, business reorganisations and redundancy programmes. On behalf of clients he has undertaken complex disciplinary investigations, grievance hearings and redundancy consultation processes. He has significant experience helping clients tackle problematic and sensitive personnel issues. Mark has regularly advised on TUPE in the context of business acquisitions, disposals and retendering across various sectors, including leisure, hospitality, real estate and health and social care. He also has extensive experience drafting employment documentation, including service agreements, restrictive covenants, contracts of employment, policies and procedures, advising employers and employees on terminations and settlement agreements, and drafting commission and bonus schemes. He has delivered training seminars and presentations to HR personnel and senior managers on employment law issues and has represented both claimants and respondents at employment tribunals involving difficult legal issues.

Sinéad Donnelly

Sinéad Donnelly is a Director in the Employment team, bringing over 15 years’ experience in employment law and HR management. She advises clients on a full spectrum of employment matters, both contentious and non-contentious, offering pragmatic, commercially focused guidance on day-to-day HR issues as well as complex legal challenges. She works with a diverse client base, including multi-site organisations throughout the UK and a number of well-known national businesses. Her expertise spans all areas of employment law, including TUPE, discrimination, organisational change and workplace disputes. She works closely with HR professionals and senior leadership teams, building long-standing relationships and acting as a trusted adviser to many clients over a number of years. Sinéad has significant experience in workplace mediation and is known for helping organisations resolve conflict at an early stage, minimising risk and avoiding escalation into formal grievances or litigation. She holds the Acas Certificate in Internal Workplace Mediation and has acted as a mediator in a wide range of complex and sensitive matters. She is also a certified Mental Health First Aider, bringing an added dimension of insight and empathy to her work. With a specialist background advising major insurance companies and their insured clients, Sinéad has a strong understanding of the insurance sector, including policy frameworks and claims-handling processes. In addition to her advisory work, she designs and delivers seminars, workshops and webinars on a broad range of employment law topics, supporting clients in staying informed and compliant. She has been recognised by The Legal 500 as a ‘rising star’ and as a ‘next generation partner’, reflecting her expertise and reputation in the field.

Andrew Dunning

Andrew Dunning is an experienced HR professional and a qualified employment law solicitor. Andrew studied law at the University of Manchester then, after completing his legal practice course, trained and qualified as an employment law specialist with Aaron and Partners. Since 2011 his work has been in HR, beginning at Community Integrated Care, a large health and social care charity, where he drafted contracts and legal documents, negotiated a complex TUPE dispute with a trade union and advised on HR and employee relations issues. He then joined the Royal Bank of Scotland's HR shared service team to help with the proposed divestment and then reintegration of the Williams and Glyn business. Recently he played a critical role in a wide-scale organisational change at Unilever where he also provided day to day HR advice to managers and employees.

Rob Elliott

Rob Elliott is a highly experienced employment law practitioner with extensive expertise in advising clients in many sectors, including government, retail, health, hospitality, logistics, professional services, digital and higher education. He completed his law degree (LLB) at the University of Leicester and his legal practice course (LPC) at De Montfort University. He qualified as a solicitor in 2004, having specialised in employment law. Since then, Rob has worked for employment law consultancies, private practice solicitors and as in-house counsel, for organisations including Croner Consulting, Qdos Consulting, Bray & Bray Solicitors, Firstsource and Serco. Rob has over 20 years’ experience providing solutions-focused advice and support to clients on all aspects of employment law. This includes complex investigations, disciplinary and grievance procedures, redundancies, restructures, discrimination issues and TUPE. He is experienced in defending claims in employment tribunals, as well as providing advice, support and training to help clients avoid or mitigate issues.

Jo Hale

Jo Hale is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Member of the Employment Lawyers Association. Her early career was in the National Health Service, as a Personnel Adviser and Senior Personnel Manager. Then she became an assistant to the legal team at North Yorkshire County Council. She did her legal training at Rixons Solicitors, dealing with employment, family and criminal matters. On qualifying as a solicitor, she led a good part of the firm’s advocacy work at Magistrates, County and Crown Courts and Employment Tribunals. She was then made Director of Legal and Human Resources Services for Community Integrated Care. Jo’s work has spanned both employment law and HR. She regularly supports clients at employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal. This has included complex whistleblowing, discrimination and TUPE cases. On behalf of clients she completes the people due diligence aspects for acquisitions, plans and supports integrations, restructurings, redundancies and relocations, deals with transfers of undertakings in various EU jurisdictions, compiles gender pay gap reports, carries out audits of the HR activity, conducts job evaluation exercises and investigates complex grievance and disciplinary matters involving senior managers. In addition, she supports clients to plan and implement HR policies and procedures. She is a trusted adviser for many clients.

Stuart Irving

Stuart Irving studied law and completed his Legal Practice Course (with commendation) at Liverpool John Moores University then trained with Bendles LLP. After being admitted as a solicitor Stuart remained at Bendles and specialised in employment law, achieving promotion to Senior Associate then Partner and Head of the Employment Department. He dealt with the more complex parts of employment law such as TUPE, and drafted service and consultancy agreements for senior employees and directors. As well as representing clients at tribunals Stuart provides advice and training for managers. His work has included advice for an international regulatory body, higher education establishments and councils on international commercial considerations in the UK and other countries. His work has also extended to international franchise, manufacturing and distribution agreements. In-Cumbria Business Magazine has named him as ‘one to watch’.

Ian McGlashan

Ian McGlashan did a degree in law at Southampton Institute of Higher Education and acquired his Diploma in Legal Practice at the Guildford College of Law. His early career was with a number of law firms in London. Linklaters Alliance; Sullivan & Cromwell; and Elliot Sloane. He helped the senior staff to research and prepare cases. At Peninsula Business Services he was an Employment Law Advocate. He is a knowledgeable and highly experienced employment specialist with wide-ranging skills acquired in a number of different settings. He helps clients to resolve difficult employment problems and to comply effectively with employment law and regulations. He also advises managers in numerous service and manufacturing sectors on all aspects of the relationships between employers and employees. He regularly defends claims at employment tribunals throughout England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as successfully representing clients at the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He is a persuasive advocate who is good at presenting complex cases and helping employers to avoid risks.

Keith Morgan

Keith Morgan read politics and economics at the University of Leeds. He then took the diploma of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development at Leeds Metropolitan University. His career in personnel management started at Massey Ferguson Manufacturing. He worked as a HR Manager for Burton Group (Arcadia), Grand Metropolitan (Diageo) and the National and Provincial Building Society. Keith was appointed Remuneration and Benefits Manager at the Yorkshire Bank and progressed to Group Remuneration and Benefits Manager for the parent company (National Australia Bank) before becoming HR Director. He later moved into line management as Head of Premium Financial Services, Head of Personal Financial Services and finally Programme Director. Keith’s background in senior HR roles is bolstered by this experience as a line manager accountable for sales and profit. He has wide experience in organisational analysis, change and restructuring. He is adept in drawing up and applying schemes for pay and compensation, in negotiating with unions and in managing performance. And he is skilled in dealing with mergers and takeovers.

Lindsey Murray

Lindsey Murray completed a law degree (LLB) at University College London. She joined Keoghs solicitors in Bolton as a court clerk and then trained and qualified as a solicitor. She specialised in employment law, working with retainer clients on complex cases, statutory consultation and settlement agreements. She also supervised the work of trainee solicitors. In 2009 Keoghs closed its commercial department and Lindsey transferred to Weightmans where she maintained her relationships with clients who had also moved. Weightmans seconded her to Thomas Cook Airlines, which asked her to stay as its senior legal counsel. She trained and advised managers on employment law and HR matters, represented the company in employment disputes, dealt with trade union litigation and oversaw TUPE outsourcing transfers. Lindsey has also written articles for internal and external publications, provided bespoke training for managers, presented at seminars and has been involved in developing an online interactive staff handbook.

Rachel Richardson

Rachel Richardson gained a Bachelor of Laws degree from Newcastle University and her Legal Practice Certificate at the College of Law, York. She then trained as a solicitor with Shranks in London, after which she joined Wollastons (now Birketts) in East Anglia as an Associate, specialising in employment law. In 2006 Rachel returned to Northern Ireland, where she joined a specialist employment law practice as a solicitor, before moving to become a Director at Tughans and then to DWF as a Director, where she led the employment team in Northern Ireland. With more than 20 years’ post-qualification experience, she has worked in both the private sector with small organisations and plcs and also in the public sector. She provides employment law advice in Northern Ireland and in Great Britain which, for example, has enabled her to advise a large engineering company with subsidiaries in both regions. Similarly, a large food and drinks manufacturer turned to Rachel when it needed advice on the swift exit of senior executives in Britain and Northern Ireland. She has advised many businesses in relation to their obligations under TUPE, often under very tight time constraints. She also provides advice on all aspects of managing employees and the relevant law, including drafting of employment documentation, disciplinary and grievance issues, redundancy and restructuring and compromise and settlement agreements. She has defended a wide variety of tribunal claims in the Employment Tribunal in Great Britain and in the Industrial and Fair Employment Tribunal in Northern Ireland, including defending a large aircraft manufacturer from complex whistle-blowing claims and a telecommunications company from a complex discrimination claim. Rachel has delivered seminars and presentations on different employment law issues and regularly provides training to businesses, she is a member of the Employment Lawyers’ Association.

Isabelle Shankar

Isabelle Shankar is a qualified solicitor with nearly 20 years' experience advising clients on employment law and human resources matters. She has worked with commercial clients in all sectors including hospitality, healthcare, construction, and legal practice. An experienced advocate and litigator, Isabelle conducts cases from the start through to conclusion, including full hearings in the Employment Tribunal, whilst also undertaking advisory work. Isabelle helps clients deal with complex disciplinary and grievance cases and supports them to handle reasonable adjustment requests and to manage absence and performance. She works with clients to draft useful core employment documents like contracts, policies and, where needed, exit agreements for senior individuals. Isabelle has experience in advising businesses about change, including restructures, redundancy and acquisitions. She is a trained mediator supporting clients to deal with work-place conflicts. Outside her work as a lawyer, Isabelle sits as a magistrate in the Family Court.

Ryan Watson

Ryan Watson studied law at Aberystwyth University and then went on to gain a distinction in his legal practice course (LPC) at Manchester Metropolitan University. After completing his LPC Ryan worked as a Legal Adviser for MTA Solicitors and then as a Senior Litigation Executive for Peninsula Business Services. In this role Ryan was responsible for all aspects of defending contentious employment tribunal litigation matters, from drafting the ET3 responses to complying with case management orders and negotiating settlements. Ryan frequently represented respondents at preliminary hearings, both in person and on the telephone, and assisted in the advisory department, providing advice to employers on dealing with grievances, disciplinaries and other HR matters. Ryan has experience of instituting and progressing tribunal matters primarily for claimants, as well as providing advice and assistance to employees experiencing employment issues. He has worked on a mixed caseload of non-contentious, pre-litigation and litigation matters and has carried out all preparatory work on litigation matters, up to and including representing clients at preliminary and final hearings.

Scott Withers

Scott Withers is an experienced Employment Lawyer and senior human resources (HR) practitioner. After qualifying as a Solicitor, he joined the HR and legal department of Make UK (formerly EEF) where, as an Area Lead, he had responsibility for a team of lawyers, HR professionals and administrators. He then moved to Weightmans as an Associate Solicitor in the Midlands Employment Department doing work such as tribunal advocacy, training, and policy review. In 2014, he joined Meggitt Aerospace (now Parker Meggitt) as HR Manager before being promoted to HR Operations Manager for the UK, then to HR Director for Employee Relations – Europe and more recently to Vice President of Human Resources for the Services and Support division. As examples of the work undertaken by Scott during his time at Meggitt, he developed a workforce plan and labour cost model for the move of four business sites into new corporate headquarters, introduced apprenticeship and team-leader training schemes and managed trade union relationships. Scott devised a re-engagement plan post-pandemic and separately diversity, equity and inclusion and divisional culture plans for the Meggitt Aftermarket division. He also led the people aspects of mergers and acquisitions when Meggitt acquired and divested businesses from its portfolio or moved businesses between sites. He gained a Master of Laws from the University of Leicester and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Victoria Young

Victoria Young has a first-class Honours degree in Forensic Science and Law. She trained and qualified as a solicitor at Taylor Vinters in Cambridge in 2007 before working in private practice as an employment law solicitor. She then joined Collinson Grant in 2012. Victoria has dealt with all aspects of contentious, non-contentious and advisory work as an employment lawyer. She has successfully defended tough and complex cases at employment tribunal and has advised employers on lots of topics including unfair dismissal, discrimination, equal pay, constructive dismissal, collective redundancy, changing terms and conditions, and TUPE. On behalf of clients, she has carried out extensive investigations into whistleblowing allegations, gross misconduct and complex grievances against senior executives. Victoria has drawn up contracts and service agreements for senior staff and directors, carried out job evaluations, advised on schemes for pay, carried out negotiation with unions on behalf of clients, negotiated and drafted settlement agreements, and drafted and advised on restrictive covenants. In her ‘preventative’ work, she trains HR managers and gives them advice on day-to-day discipline, conduct, absence, performance and redundancy. Victoria has wide skills and a firm grasp of how to apply the law. She provides commercial and pragmatic advice and cost-effective solutions to clients.