VWV‘s education practice spans employment, redundancies and restructuring, procurement and commercial matters for institutional clients. Jane Byford is well regarded for her expertise across employment and HR work. Michael Halsey handles employee relations matters, bringing particular depth to complex grievance, disciplinary and discrimination cases. Kris Robbetts advises on freedom of speech, academic freedom, harassment and sexual misconduct, as well as the evolving duty of care owed to students. Bob Fahy supports higher education institutions through restructuring projects, collective consultation, trade union matters, tribunal litigation and HR issues spanning academic and professional staff.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- The VWV team is led by the excellent Morag Roddick. Morag is a top commercial lawyer specializing in the educational sector. She has deep experience and is able to bring her judgment to difficult matters related to the sector. She has superb client management skills, always keeping the client in the loop and always billing fairly.
- The team is friendly, helpful, and responsive. They reach out to other team members for particular expertise at times, but mostly respond directly and in a timely manner.
- Michael Halsey stands out for me as worthy of particular note for his knowledge, expertise, and for his calm and practical approach.
- VWV is an incredibly responsive legal firm, which for me is something critical. They offer pragmatic, risk-based advice on our cases. They also really take the time to understand us as clients and frame their advice based on knowledge. Both in terms of the technical level, they don’t just plain speak the basics of the law, but provide challenge and advice in more complex cases.
- They are incredibly responsive to requests for advice and input and have an in-depth knowledge of the HE sector and our particular challenges.
- Not only is the service excellent, but responses are always prompt and the team makes themselves readily available, even at short notice on particularly urgent situations. The conversations provide down-to-earth information combined with the legal perspective, which is helpful in an initial conversation.
Key clients
- Bangor University
- Bath Spa University
- Birmingham Newman University
- Bournemouth University
- Brunel University London
- Cardiff University
- De Montfort University
- Francis Crick Institute
- King's College London
- Greater Birmingham and Solihull Institute of Technology
- London Metropolitan University
- Middlesex University
Work highlights
Acted for the Royal Academy of Music in negotiating and completing a lease.
Practice head
Jane Byford
Other key lawyers
Michael Halsey; Kris Robbetts; Bob Fahy; Morag Roddick