Laura is a Partner in the Employment and Investigations teams.
Laura advises on both contentious and non-contentious employment law, across a wide range of matters, from large projects such as substantial site closures and re-organisations to day to day helpline queries. Laura acts for clients from a range of sectors, including, retail, hospitality, distribution, finance and manufacturing. She also regularly provides bespoke training to clients.
She has a particular specialism in conducting investigations for clients, particularly in:
Employment status – including various investigations for large logistics and delivery businesses into the potential employment or worker status of drivers and couriers. This has involved conducting interviews, on-site investigations and reviewing documentation in line with recent case law changes in the area and producing outcome reports on risk level and recommended mitigation.
Equal Pay - several investigations into the risk of successful equal pay claims for private sector retailers in light of the ongoing supermarket equal pay mass litigation, including providing a report into risk and making mitigation recommendations incorporating the most up to date advice of QCs in this field.
National Minimum Wage – investigations into compliance with the National Minimum Wage Regulations, which regularly identifies “subconscious” breaches. On numerous occasions she has advised clients through an HMRC audit, significantly minimising exposure through recommending mitigation steps and through negotiation with HMRC. On other occasions she has pro-actively advised on mitigation prior to an HMRC audit for clients in the most at risk sectors (I.e. those with high numbers of hourly paid employees, such as retail, hospitality and manufacturing).
Laura also has a significant amount of Tribunal litigation experience, covering each stage of litigation and every type of claim. Her experience includes defending employers in large multi-claimant litigation, the most recent example was an unlawful deduction of wages claim brought by 480 Claimants. She has also advised another employer in a redundancy unfair dismissal claim brought by 200 Claimants and the Union, with considerable press attention and scrutiny from local MPs.
She regularly supports clients with longer term projects and investigations, evaluating the risks and advising on mitigation.
Recent examples of how Laura has supported his clients include:
- conducting a grievance appeal investigation relating to a grievance from a senior employee against the Managing Director, consisting of approximately 1500 pages of evidence and a 25 point appeal letter;
- supporting a large logistics provider with a multiple grievance investigation;
- advising clients on changes to terms and conditions and dismissal and re-engagement process, including a large project to amend the bonus scheme for 32,000 employees;
- advising distribution and logistics clients on the TUPE transfer of staff in and out of their businesses and drafting indemnities for the commercial contracts;
- assisting clients in navigating the complex and challenging areas of industrial relations, including advising on industrial action and pay bargaining; and
- negotiating settlement deals and advising on restrictive covenants for senior Directors.