Employment: Beds, Bucks, Herts, Middx
Hall of Fame
The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.
Rising stars
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Dentons
Verity is a senior member of the People, Reward and Mobility team and is experienced in all aspects of employment law and corporate immigration matters. She deals mostly with corporate clients advising on contentious and non-contentious employment matters. Verity's contentious practice includes defending claims in the Employment Tribunal and experience of Employment Appeal Tribunal litigation. She defends claims in relation to unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, discrimination, equal pay and whistleblowing. She also advises individuals at a senior level on negotiating exits. Verity's non-contentious work includes reviewing and drafting all forms of employment documentation, including employment contracts, executive service agreements and employee handbooks consisting of extensive policies and procedures. She also advises on employment matters, on share and business acquisitions, and disposals. Verity's immigration work extends to all aspects of global employee mobility for corporate clients. She advises on applications to join the Register of Sponsors, Leave to Remain and Leave to Enter and Entry Clearance applications, various settlement applications, British citizenship applications, and appeals to the First Tier Tribunal. Verity contributes employment and immigration insights to the People, Reward and Mobility blog found at ukemploymenthub.com.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Dentons
Sarah is a partner and head of the Firm's tier one ranked People, Reward and Mobility practice in Milton Keynes. A very experienced employment lawyer, she undertakes a full range of employment work for a wide variety of clients in the private and public sectors, including many leading companies and household names. Sarah's work includes advising on large-scale redundancy and restructuring exercises, TUPE transfers and complex outsourcing arrangements, as well as advising on the employment aspects of large corporate transactions, having worked on numerous multi-million pound transactions for an impressive portfolio of clients. She has particular experience of large-scale employee consultation processes, having advised extensively on collective consultation with unions and employee representatives on changes to terms and conditions, including pensions changes, and the application of collective agreements to terms and conditions. Sarah also advises on trade union recognition, negotiations and industrial relations issues. She acts as a “sounding board” on employment issues and strategy for HR teams, in-house counsel and boards, advising on executive terminations and employee competition issues. An accomplished advocate, Sarah has conducted numerous employment tribunal claims and employment appeals on the full range of employment issues. She regularly advises multi-national companies and manages global and European HR projects. Legal 500 stated: "The ‘outstanding’ Sarah Beeby leads Dentons’ practice, which is noted for its ‘excellent level of service’ and for its ability to advise a global client base on multi-jurisdictional matters." Sarah Beeby "'understands the pressures placed upon employers’ and ‘has an excellent grasp of the law and its application’." Chambers UK stated: "Sarah Beeby receives praise from clients, one of whom comments: 'I thoroughly enjoy working with Sarah, she is truly an extension of my team. She is patient and considered and always gives practical advice that works well in the context of our business.' She is recognised for her 'in-depth knowledge' and 'can-do attitude'."
Shoosmiths LLP
Simon is a Partner in the Employment team based in Milton Keynes. Simon is an experienced employment specialist who provides advice to a number of large commercial clients, many of whom are household names, on all aspects of employment law. Simon has many years of experience working with private and public sector clients and is the main contact for employment work with a local university and many well established organisations in the retail and manufacturing sectors. Simon is the lead employment contact for a number of our automotive clients and is frequently referred to by these clients as the "go to" individual when drafting and negotiating their contractual TUPE provisions. Simon is renowned for delivering advice in a straightforward and easy to understand manner and his down to earth approach puts clients and witnesses at ease. His recent work includes: • acting as independent appeal chair with delegated responsibility to a disciplinary process which had seen a director/shareholder and manager dismissed from the business. Simon conducted interviews with all relevant witnesses and considered a significant volume of evidence before preparing a detailed outcome report. In the successful judgment, the Employment Judge stated that the original process was flawed but those defects were corrected on appeal by the ‘excellent, thorough, thought and balanced rehearing by Mr Fennell’ • assisting a number of private sector organisations with multi-level redundancy and restructuring processes; • pre-contract negotiations to TUPE (transfer of undertakings) clauses; and • support to the corporate team with M&A work. Simon writes and provides training sessions for clients on a range of subjects and is a regular speaker at Shoosmiths' national employment webinars. Simon is a member of the Employment Lawyer's Association and in 2023 contributed to the ELA's response to government changes to whistleblowing legislation.
Dentons
Michelle is a partner in Dentons' tier one ranked People, Reward and Mobility practice in Milton Keynes, and is an experienced employment law specialist. She provides strategic and risk management advice to a wide variety of public and private sector clients, including a number of large household names. Michelle does a lot of work in the retail, manufacturing, energy and transport sectors, advising venture capital clients on the employment aspects of growth and development projects. She regularly supports Dentons' international client base with a variety of cross-jurisdictional projects. Michelle advises on contentious and non-contentious matters. She has a straightforward and commercial approach, and is highly experienced in the employment aspects of all forms of transactional work, change programs and litigation. Michelle is an expert in large domestic and international TUPE outsourcing exercises and retendering processes. She also focuses on whistleblowing, and complex and high-value litigation, including discrimination and TUPE complaints. Michelle guides employers through a variety of sensitive day-to-day issues with a focus on reputational aspects. She also supports businesses in overseeing significant investigations.
Leading individuals
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Sherrards Solicitors LLP
Mark joined Sherrards' Employment team in July 2008, from an in-house role with BT plc and is now head of the Employment Team. Having spent much of his career in-house Mark has a real understanding of actual business requirements and offers commercial and pragmatic advice tailored to the needs of clients' businesses. Mark advises both employers and employees on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. This includes representation in relation to Employment Tribunal proceedings, advising on corporate transactions, providing employee relations guidance, drafting restrictive covenants and compiling appropriate employment documentation. Mark has experience working with businesses across numerous sectors including in particular retail, logistics, recruitment and pharmaceutical. Mark conducts seminars on developments in employment law, as well as providing in-house training to clients and is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association
IBB Law
Justin is partner and head of the employment team. He acts for national and global corporates and larger SMEs providing general HR advice, defending Employment Tribunal claims and advising the C-suite on strategic decisions such as restructuring and redundancies. He provides training to HR departments, in-house counsel and management, and regularly presents seminars to external audiences. He maintains personal relationships with lawyers from each major jurisdiction in Europe and a number in the Middle East.
