Companies

We advise on how to dismiss employees in a way that minimises the chance of successful tribunal or court action by the employee. It is, however, better to avoid tribunals where possible and to this end we are very experienced at dealing with settlement agreements and other ways of settling employment claims. Sometimes, however, it is not possible to avoid a tribunal and so we represent our clients in tribunals. Simon Steen is not only a very experienced employment law solicitor but also a qualified barrister with a great deal of tribunal advocacy experience. We are not only proud of our success rate in employment tribunals but also in the number of clients that keep coming back to us for all of their employment law needs. We also advise on the enforceability of restrictive covenants and on how to enforce them in court.

Our experience in dealing with senior executive termination packages assists in advising companies on the best approach to terminating the employment of senior executives. We do not engage in long and costly negotiation battles with the other side's solicitors - at our client's expense. Our approach, when acting on behalf of companies, is to calculate the executive's entitlement first - before he or she is spoken to by the company and then assist our client to make the first offer one that is likely to be accepted. We then work with our client to ensure that the executive, as far as possible, retains face and faith in the company. Our experience tells us that this is by far the best approach as it avoids protracted battles taking up huge amounts of management time.

We deal with employment tribunals, contracts of employment, performance management issues, can offer seminars and training for HR departments, we draft and assist with staff handbooks including converting US handbooks into UK law compliant ones, provide advice on changing contracts of employment and also on taking action against ineffective employees. We are also very specialised at board room changes - both in and out.

We can provide contracts of employment, bespoke and general offer letters, advice on foreign workers and the need for work permits, avoiding discrimination, flexible working policies, and service agreements for senior executives including restrictive covenants and advice on the type of benefit package appropriate for senior executives in the UK. We regularly advise companies based elsewhere than the UK on employing executives both in the UK and in the rest of Europe.