Employment & immigration

<p>Gareth is a partner and head of the Bristows <a href="/expertise/transactions/employment/">employment and immigration</a> team. He joined Bristows in November 2021.</p> <p>Gareth’s practice covers all aspects of employment law, including Tribunal and High Court litigation. The primary focus of Gareth’s work is on non-contentious employment matters: employment contracts and bonus arrangements; senior executive appointments and terminations; international assignments; complex investigations; reorganisations and redundancies; the people issues arising from outsourcing arrangements and corporate transactions; and international HR projects.</p> <p>Gareth also specialises in immigration law and leads the Bristows’ global mobility practice. He supports businesses with the movement of their workforce around the world and the recruitment and retention of international talent.</p> <p>Gareth’s dual employment and immigration expertise gives his practice a natural international focus. He advises clients across a variety of sectors but has particular experience of acting for businesses within the financial services, technology and life sciences sectors. Gareth’s clients include large multi-national companies. However,  he also has a real passion for working with innovative, rapid growth companies, helping them to set up, and grow, in new territories.</p> <p>Gareth’s recent work includes:</p> <ul> <li>supporting a fintech business on the roll-out of new contracts to senior managers and certified persons prior to the award of its banking licence;</li> <li>advising a global technology business on the employment aspects of an acquisition across 15 jurisdictions;</li> <li>designing an investigations training course for an international technology business and delivering it across multiple jurisdictions;</li> <li>advising a financial institution on the resolution of a sensitive and high-value whistleblowing claim;</li> <li>advising a number of clients on workforce planning strategies and the implications of the new immigration system following the end of EU free movement into the UK.</li> </ul> <p>Gareth speaks publicly on a broad range of employment and immigration topics and regularly hosts thought leadership discussions on evolving employment laws and practices. He has considerable experience of designing and delivering bespoke in-house training programmes for clients.</p> <p>Gareth has spent time in-house at a leading insurance broker and a financial services regulator.</p>

<p>Lizzie is an <a href="/expertise/transactions/employment/">employment</a> law and immigration law specialist with an expertise in cross-border and international matters.</p> <p>She advises on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment issues. Contentious experience includes acting for employers on complex, sensitive and high value discrimination and whistle-blowing cases as well as unfair dismissal and breach of contract claims.</p> <p>Lizzie is experienced in advising on reorganisations including redundancies (individual and collective), changing terms and conditions of employment and outsourcings; TUPE; disputes involving allegations of discrimination, bullying and whistle blowing; negotiating senior exits; secondments and international assignments. She also has experience of dealing with cross-border disputes arising from the relocation/transfer of staff.</p> <p>Lizzie regularly assists clients with all aspects of sponsor licence compliance, prevention of illegal working and visa applications for international employees and their dependants under the points-based system and other immigration categories. With expertise in both employment and immigration law, Lizzie is well placed to assist and advise clients on all aspects of the relationship with staff including recruitment, relocation, retention of talent and termination.</p> <p>Lizzie is the editor and author of the England and Wales chapter of “Employment Law in Europe” (Bloomsbury Professional) (editions in 2008, 2013 and 2024).</p> <p>Lizzie joined Bristows as an Of Counsel in September 2021 and is part of the employment team. Prior to this, she spent 14 years at a leading city firm during which time she undertook secondments with a global insurer and a UK regulator.</p>

<p>Emily frequently advises clients on complex <a href="/expertise/transactions/employment/">employment</a> matters, including the appointment and exit of senior individuals.</p> <p>Emily provides HR teams with day-to-day support, including on employee relations matters (such as grievance and disciplinary procedures), advising on employment status concerns, reviewing the enforceability of restrictive covenants, drafting key employment documentation such as employment contracts, service agreements handbooks, settlement agreements, consultancy agreements etc.</p> <p>Emily has successfully supported clients through large-scale redundancy and TUPE processes. She has both supported and led on numerous employment tribunal litigation matters. Emily also has immigration expertise, supporting employers in the movement of their workforce around the world.</p> <p>Emily often works with the <a href="/expertise/transactions/corporate-financing/">Corporate</a> and Commercial teams, in particular providing employment input on M&A deals and outsourcing agreements.</p> <p>Some of Emily’s work highlights include:</p> <ul> <li>Co-ordinating an international project for a multinational media company, which involved obtaining employment law advice in over 50 jurisdictions.</li> <li>Advising on the employment aspects of WPP’s acquisition of Satalia, the global leader in enterprise AI.</li> <li>Supporting on a cross-jurisdictional collective redundancy process for a retail business involving around 15 different sites.</li> <li>Advising on the employment aspects of Dutch private equity group Waterland’s acquisition and re-organisation of the Priory Group, which involved over 21,000 employees.</li> <li>Supporting a client in the tech sector to carry out a TUPE transfer of around 150 employees and a collective redundancy process, which resulted in around 50 dismissals.</li> </ul> <p>Emily has undertaken three client secondments, the most recent involving supporting an international technology business in carrying out a TUPE transfer and collective redundancy process.</p> <p>Emily has an interest in the employment law implications of artificial intelligence and often writes and speaks on this topic.</p> <p>Emily is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and Industrial Law Society.</p>

<p>Manon advises on contentious and non-contentious matters, including day-to-day advisory work, providing support on various HR and employee relations issues and advising on litigation both in the employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal.</p> <p>She is experienced in drafting key employment documents such as employment contracts, consultancy agreements and settlement agreements as well as advising on employee handbooks and policies.</p> <p>Manon regularly supports employers with employee relations issues such as performance improvement plans and grievances, as well as employee exits including redundancies.</p> <p>Manon often works alongside the <a href="/expertise/transactions/corporate-financing/">Corporate</a> team, in particular providing employment input on M&A deals as well as TUPE analysis and transfers of <a href="/expertise/transactions/employment-immigration/">employment</a>.</p> <p>Manon also has immigration experience, assisting clients with sponsor licence applications and end-to-end support through the visa application process to facilitate the recruitment of talent worldwide.</p> <p>Some of Manon’s work highlights include:</p> <ul> <li>Managing and leading on complex and time-pressured international coordination and integration projects across 15 jurisdictions for an industry-leading computer software company.</li> <li>Advising and supporting on a long-standing and high value employment tribunal dispute pertaining to complaints of sex discrimination and harassment, including a technical legal appeal of a remedy judgment to the Employment Appeal Tribunal and collaborating with tax counsel on a complex and nuanced grossing-up exercise.</li> <li>Providing employment support in relation to multiple and ongoing large-scale garden centre acquisitions (both share and asset deals) including conducting thorough due diligence and inputting into M&A transaction and ancillary documents.</li> <li>Advising on sensitive employee relations matters, such as one involving allegations of sexual harassment culminating in a parallel criminal investigation.</li> </ul> <p>Manon’s clients span a variety of sectors, with a particular focus on life sciences and technology. Including, a US market-leading computer software company, a rapidly growing and successful biotech start-up, a large and prestigious garden centre group, an Indian multinational technology company, and a financial software company.</p> <p>Manon trained at Bristows before joining the Employment team as an associate in September 2023. As a trainee, Manon spent three months in the Corporate, Tax and Employment team. Manon also spent three months working in the in-house Employment Legal team at a leading information technology company. Prior to joining the firm, Manon studied Biology at the University of Bath and worked at a leading multinational pharmaceutical company for three years.</p> <p>Manon is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and Immigration Law Practitioners Society.</p>

<p>Anna joined Bristows as a Trainee Solicitor in August 2023 <span class="ui-provider a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">and is currently working in the <a href="https://www.bristows.com/expertise/transactions/corporate-financing/">corporate</a>, <a href="https://www.bristows.com/expertise/transactions/tax/">tax</a> and <a href="https://www.bristows.com/expertise/transactions/employment/">employment</a> team.</span></p> <p>She completed her BSc in Materials Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. Her dissertation research on the structural and adsorption properties of a zeolite contributed to a publication in the Chemistry of Materials journal.</p> <p>Prior to joining Bristows, Anna worked in the client care team at a national UK law firm assisting with their client feedback program and project managing their ESG client listening project.</p>

<p>James completed a BSc in chemistry at the University of Birmingham and is currently working in the <a href="https://www.bristows.com/expertise/transactions/corporate-financing/">corporate</a>, <a href="https://www.bristows.com/expertise/transactions/tax/">tax</a> and <a href="https://www.bristows.com/expertise/transactions/employment/">employment</a> team. His dissertation was a study on developing AI for drug discovery.</p> <p>Prior to joining Bristows, James was a supervisor at a Central London Citizens Advice Office.</p>