Employment & Discrimination
12KBW’s employment and discrimination team handles the whole spectrum of employment, discrimination, investigations, injunctions, commercial employment and whistleblowing cases. We are ranked as a leading set for employment law in Chambers & Partners.
All members of our team are experienced advocates, regularly conducting cases in the Employment Tribunal and in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, as well as in the Court of Appeal. Beyond tribunal litigation, we handle commercial employment cases in both the High and County Courts, including post-termination restraint cases, team move claims, trade secrets litigation and injunction applications. Additionally, 12KBW’s employment team are regularly instructed to carry out grievance investigations, disciplinary appeals and consultation processes where employers need independent, high-quality involvement.
Our employment barristers are also skilled employment investigators. Our team brings the forensic skills honed from thousands of hours in the Tribunal and in court to workplace grievance, disciplinary and other investigations, across all areas of industry, in the private, public and voluntary sectors. Each investigation is approached with the integrity expected of an independent Barrister, and offers both total confidentiality and complete thoroughness. Our members can also bring their knowledge of specific procedures, such as grievance and disciplinary processes, adopted by different business sectors.
12KBW’s employment clients are extremely varied. We act for all manner of private sector employers, including financial institutions, as well as employees of all seniorities, in particular senior executives. We also have longstanding connections with a number of unions and local authorities.
12KBW has a particular strength in the crossover between employment and personal injury law, such as workplace stress claims, disability discrimination following an industrial accident, bullying and harassment claims and discrimination cases in the education and services sectors. Our advocates have appeared in many of the seminal stress cases (including Barber v Somerset County Council, Hartman v South Essex Mental Healthcare and Bristol City Council v Deadman).
Regardless of the case or client, our barristers always work closely and collaboratively with solicitors and clients in order to achieve the best results. We are commercially minded, offering practical and prompt advice. We are well aware of the increasing importance of ADR, and our barristers are experienced at mediation in employment cases, with some of our team members being accredited mediators. We also have a number of public access authorised barristers.
