Shona is a Partner in the Employment team.
Shona has over a decade of experience in providing strategic and practical employment advice. Shona has a particular specialism in advising Higher Education clients and clients in the Financial Services sector.
She has supported client with employee disputes, internal governance, complex safeguarding issues and whistleblowing complaints, as well as having regulatory matters including both financial and non-financial misconduct.
Her specific expertise includes:
- Complex litigation in the Employment Tribunal, Employment Appeal Tribunal and the High Court, including multi-litigant and group actions;
- Providing practical, timely resolutions in sensitive, high value cases posing particular reputational risk;
- Advising on specific issues around flexible working, disability discrimination and application of the capability procedure;
- Staff welfare issues, including substance abuse and mental health;
- Supporting clients to effectively dispose of spurious claims brought by serial/vexatious litigants and secure corresponding costs orders;
- Drafting and advising on TUPE clauses in the context of service provision changes and business transfers and supporting clients in related negotiations.
Recent examples of how Shona has supported clients in Financial Services:
- Advising a client on a potentially high profile case of non-financial misconduct, specifically sexual harassment involving several claimants;
- Successfully managing a high-risk exit of a senior executive returning from maternity leave;
- Changing terms and conditions of the senior management team, including advice on the consultation process and managing settlement agreements arising from the same;
- Advising clients on the Senior Managers and Certification Regime requirements in respect of remuneration and fitness and propriety;
- Advising clients on the regulatory referencing regime in the context of ongoing/incomplete investigations;
- Drafting contracts for senior managers to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, specifically around scope of role, remuneration and reporting requirements.
Recent examples of how Shona has supported clients in Higher Education:
- Advising on cases of student -on – student harassment;
- Supporting clients in their consultations with Unions in respect of restructures and changes to terms and conditions;
- Responding to Student complaints and defending judicial review applications brought by students;
- Securing costs orders against joint litigants in a whistleblowing case;
- Conducting a high profile case resulting in a strong result at judicial mediation (race discrimination)
- Promptly disposing of a disability discrimination case at a preliminary hearing;
- Providing legal support in respect of an international disciplinary matter, which had safeguarding aspects (referenced above).
- International and multi-jurisdictional matters, including:
- Misconduct at a European University (by a visiting member of the client’s academic staff);
- Advising clients on taxation, contractual and legal implications of foreign-based workers;
- Supporting clients to enforce a return to the UK in cases where employees were working remotely from abroad since covid;
- Advising on restructures across different jurisdictions;
- Complex remuneration issues, including a variable pay dispute raised by an employee based on client’s HK campus