GQ | LITTLER

Alison Sneddon

Alison is a Senior Associate at GQ|Littler and practises both contentious and non-contentious employment matters for businesses. She advises across a range of matters, often with a cross-border element. These include senior exits, team moves, restrictive covenants, whistleblowing frameworks and investigations, complex grievance and disciplinary matters and staff reorganisations. Alison is particularly experienced advising HR teams and Executive/Remuneration Committees on the employment aspects of international financial services regulatory investigations such as compensation freezing/adjustment and Conduct Rule breach assessments.

Ben Smith

Ben is a senior associate who works across all areas of employment law including advisory, litigation and transactional support. He has particular experience in defending complex Employment Tribunal litigation, including as part of the team that successfully appealed a long-running whistleblowing, sex discrimination, pregnancy and maternity discrimination, and victimisation claim to the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Ben regularly supports and manages international employment advisory projects. He also has significant experience of managing document review projects, such as disclosure and data subject access requests, leveraging technology and flexible resourcing solutions. Drawing on a longstanding academic interest and experience working in the charitable sector, Ben is particularly interested in equality, diversity, and discrimination issues for employers arising in both contentious and non-contentious maters. Ben also supports the London office’s knowhow and training capability, regularly keeping clients and the team informed of legal developments, as well as the legal technology workstream.

Ben Rouse

Ben joined GQ|Littler in September 2021 as an associate, having trained at US law firm Morgan Lewis. During his training contract, Ben gained experience in the employment, corporate, litigation and structured finance departments.

Caroline Baker

Caroline is one of the firm's partners having been promoted to the partnership in 2019. She advises clients in a wide range of sectors and has particular expertise in advising financial services and insurance sector employers, including dealing with associated remuneration structures and regulatory issues. Caroline recently spent four months on a secondment to Marsh & McLennan Companies assisting them through the transitional period following a high profile acquisition. Caroline has a solid track record of providing pragmatic, commercial solutions to difficult advisory matters including disciplinary issues involving regulated or board level employees, business restructures and challenging employee relations issues (in particular where there are allegations of discrimination or whistleblowing). She also has significant litigation expertise and regularly advises on claims in the employment tribunal and the High Court. Clients regularly praise Caroline’s ability to cut through the complexity and provide clear practical solutions which can be implemented by the business. Caroline frequently delivers training to financial services clients and representative bodies on a broad range of areas, including working behaviour, compliance with the Senior Managers and Certification Regime and the Conduct Rules. As part of the ELA Pro Bono Committee, she was one of the founders of the award winning ELIPS scheme at the London Central Employment Tribunal which support litigants in person. Caroline is head of the Women's Leadership Initiative in London and co-leader of the initiative throughout Europe. She is also a member of Littler's global Women's Leadership Initiative Steering Committee which focuses on developing and retaining women leaders at every level of the firm.

Chris Coombes

Chris joined GQ|Littler in April 2020 as an associate, having trained and qualified at international law firm Baker McKenzie. Chris works across all areas of employment law including advisory, litigation and transactional support. Chris also regularly supports on employment projects with an international focus.

Daniel Pollard

Daniel is a partner experienced in advising on a broad range of employment law issues including corporate transactions, TUPE, executive service agreements, restrictive covenants, corporate governance, board room disputes, high value employment tribunal claims and international HR projects. He specialises in: Domestic and international corporate transactions, TUPE/ARD and business restructurings The appointment and removal of high-profile board level executives UK and international data privacy issues US businesses setting up in the UK. Over his career, he has advised some of the world’s best-known companies on a range of complex, sensitive and high-profile matters. Daniel leads the firm's transactional practice and provides support to a number of US law firms on transactional matters. He predominantly advises employers and, whilst he advises clients in a broad range of sectors, he has particular experience advising technology and financial services clients.

Darren Isaacs

Darren is a partner at the firm who co-leads GQ|Littler’s international practice development team. Darren focuses on EMEA co-ordination and cross-border HR legal work for business clients. Examples of Darren’s work include: advising a global IT business on the EU employment law aspects of its acquisition of a rival; leading the employment law team advising on the Lehman Brothers insolvency in Europe; advising on the largest ever international roll-out of regulatory compliant bonus scheme rules for an international bank (60 countries); leading the European employment law team on a global demerger and separate listing; assisting a global "gig economy" start-up to establish operations across EMEA. Darren also hosts Littler’s quarterly Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) webinars focusing on EU labour laws and provides training on all aspects of cross-border employment law.

Deborah Margolis

Deborah specialises in employment and data protection law, having trained at Camfords LLP and prior to that having gained significant experience in the employment department of Clyde & Co LLP. During her training contract, Deborah was seconded to the pensions department of a City firm and the in-house legal department at Channel 5. More recently, Deborah was seconded to one of GQ|Littler’s clients for six months to manage their GDPR compliance project. Deborah practises both contentious and non-contentious employment law for businesses, advising clients on a wide of range of matters, from employee relations matters to terminations and large-scale projects, often with an international element. Deborah has a particular interest and expertise in data protection and is one of the firm’s subject matter experts. Deborah has significant contentious experience and has worked on a number of complex tribunal and EAT claims as well as High Court litigation.

Dilshen Dahanayake

Dilshen has experience across the full gamut of employment law. He assists employers with complex dismissals, remuneration arrangements, asset protection, restructurings and redundancies, and discrimination. He also has significant experience in dispute resolution, including having acted for clients in mediation and appeared as counsel in New Zealand’s Employment Court in injunctive proceedings and a high-profile worker reclassification claim. Dilshen’s practice also involves advising on the people aspects of corporate transactions.

Georgia Fisher

Georgia advises on the full range of employment law issues and works across all areas, including advisory, litigation and transactional support.  

James Champness

James joined GQ|Littler in June 2022, having trained and qualified at leading private equity firm Travers Smith LLP, before going on to work at the technology law firm Kemp Little LLP, and Deloitte LLP (which had acquired Kemp Little).

Jenny Allan

Jenny has experience working on multijurisdictional projects, corporate transactions and employment advisory work.

Jessica Lim

Jessica has experience working across all areas of employment law, including advisory, litigation and transactional matters, and has experience working on multi-jurisdictional matters.

Jon Gilligan

Jon is one of the founders of GQ|Littler and its managing partner. In addition, Jon advises on complex high value employment issues, including business restructures, bonus disputes, senior level hires and dismissals. He has worked on some of the most challenging employment law matters and specialises in finding practical and creative solutions for clients that are tailored to their risk appetite and culture. Jon has worked not only in the Magic Circle (with Linklaters), but as an in-house employment lawyer with the investment banking arm at RBS during the challenges of integration with ABN AMRO and part-nationalisation in the aftermath of the credit crunch.

Josephine Rendall-Neal

Josephine regularly provides advice on employment aspects of corporate transactions and reorganisations, including due diligence, TUPE, and collective redundancy exercises. She also advises on day-to-day HR issues such as grievance and disciplinary investigations, data subject access requests, policies, recruitment, and employee exits.

Kate Potts

Kate is one of the firm’s senior associates. She practices all aspects of employment law including contentious and non-contentious matters and day-to-day HR advisory work. Having spent nine months on secondment at Uber, Kate is particularly interested in the future of work and has great practical experience working with technology businesses, in particular in relation to navigating employment status topics. Kate was part of the team at Uber which pioneered the groundbreaking trade union recognition deal with GMB. She is experienced in working with a range of business stakeholders including legal teams, HR specialists, board members, operations teams, software specialists, regulatory bodies, ACAS, as well as marketing and public relations teams. Kate is experienced in providing strategic advice on a wide range of workplace issues, in particular in relating to handling complex grievances and disciplinaries as well as managing senior exits and large data subject access requests. Kate regularly works with financial services firms during disciplinary processes to navigate the regulatory implications. She regularly advises on employment tribunal litigation including claims relating to discrimination, whistleblowing, unfair dismissal, and working time. Kate also has experience advising on employee competition and breach of confidentiality matters which involve High Court injunctions. Kate has a keen interest in diversity, equity and inclusion and she works with management teams to update and enhance their policies and practices to help achieve their diversity, equity and inclusion objectives. She regularly provides training on diversity and inclusion topics to managers, HR teams, and general staff.

Kate Richards

Kate is an associate who works across all areas of employment law, including advisory, litigation and transactional support.

Laura Lobb

Laura is a partner at GQ|Littler and has over 14 years' experience advising on the employment aspects of commercial transactions. Laura is an expert on the employment aspects of commercial transactions and, in particular, complex M&A and TUPE/outsourcing arrangements. Having been involved in matters from major reorganisations through to advising at Board level on significant transactions, Laura gives practical and pragmatic advice with a commercial focus. Laura also has experience of advising on substantial and high-profile regulatory matters and has advised in relation to HMRC investigations into NMW issues in the technology sector (specifically in relation to secondees from other jurisdictions and apprentices), ICO investigations following insurance sector-wide data breaches, and both supporting and carrying out HR investigations as an independent investigator. Laura excels at delivering realistic and clear advice in order to build strong working relationships in these challenging situations. Building on an early career of advising in relation to TUPE and organisational change in public sector matters, Laura has transferred this knowledge of a regulated environment to advising on matters relating to financial services. She has advised in relation to the effects of SMCR and the implementation of GDPR and gives advice that takes into account the nuances of working in a regulated sector, providing support from a legal perspective with an insight into employee relations, accountability to a regulator and public perception.

Lisa Coleman

Lisa is one of the firm’s senior associates. She works across all areas of employment law focusing mainly on day-to-day advisory work and litigation support. Lisa is experienced in defending employment tribunal claims, including very high value and complex claims, and has experience in appealing tribunal judgments to the Employment Appeal Tribunal as well as assisting with High Court proceedings for breach of contract. She is particularly interested in discrimination claims. She also regularly supports clients with difficult employee grievances, disciplinaries, redundancies and employee exits. She is also particularly specialised in advising on data protection issues. She has experience in managing and responding to data subject access requests and in assisting employers comply with their data protection obligations. She has provided various training sessions to clients on this topic and has developed guides and step-plans to support employers with compliance. Lisa regularly provides support on day-to-day matters such as advising on the enforceability of restrictive covenants, carrying out employment contract and handbook audits and coordinating the roll out of global contracts. Additionally, Lisa seeks out opportunities to deliver training to clients on new and key areas of employment law.

Mark Callaghan

Mark advises on the full range of employment law matters, with a particular focus on clients who have international operations and/or face multi-jurisdictional employment law challenges. He particularly enjoys finding solutions to knotty employee relations issues regarding (amongst other things) performance, redundancies, disciplinaries and grievances, and post-termination restrictions. His advice is pragmatic and empathetic.

Natasha Adom

Natasha leads the firm’s client training practice and has extensive experience of developing and delivering employment law programs on a range of issues including, handling complex disciplinary and grievance matters, managing redundancies and discrimination. A senior employment lawyer, Natasha leads the firm’s client training practice and has extensive experience of developing and delivering employment law programs on a range of issues including, handling complex disciplinary and grievance matters, managing redundancies and discrimination. Natasha is an accredited trainer certified by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and has a particular passion for diversity, equity and inclusion training in the workplace. Natasha has over a decade’s experience in advising clients on employment relations issues. She also has a wealth of experience in delivering effective employment legal training to clients, on issues including anti-discrimination, harassment, hiring and firing, employment tribunal claims, witness preparation and managing sickness absence. She also writes frequently for legal and HR publications.

Nicola James

Nicola specialises in complex and international transactions including multi-jurisdictional carve outs, mergers and acquisitions, outsourcings, business transfers and reorganisations. Nicola has experience advising a broad range of clients including those in the entertainment, healthcare, retail and financial sectors. Noteable work includes advising: Universal Music Group (UMG) on the separation of the Parlophone Label Group from EMI Records and its subsequent sale to Warner Music Group for GBP 487 million; Kantar (a Bain Capital portfolio company) on its multi-jurisdictional carve out and disposal of Kantar Health to Cerner corporation; Marlin Equity Partners on its acquisition of the global Arcserve business from CA Inc, transferring employees in 28 jurisdictions; and Emerson Electric Co on a number of its carve out transactions (both sale and acquisition side) including the purchase of the Tools and Test business from Textron Inc and Intelligent Platforms business from General Electric Company. For her work with UMG and Marlin, Nicola has been part of the teams winning Commercial Team of the Year 2013 and 2015 at the British Legal Awards and Lawyer Awards respectively.

Oliver Moreton

Oli advises clients on a broad range of employment law issues, including high value litigation, day-to-day advisory matters, multi-jurisdictional and restructuring projects, and the employment aspects of complex transactions. He particularly enjoys litigation, and has experience defending employers in the Employment Tribunal, Employment Appeal Tribunal and the High Court. Other recent work includes assisting clients with workforce restructures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, advising on a disciplinary investigation into serious allegations of sexual harassment by a senior employee and advising a well-known high street brand on its response to an HMRC investigation into National Minimum Wage compliance.

Paul Quain

Senior Partner

Philip Cameron

Philip is a partner of the firm with a wealth of experience across all areas of employment law with a focus on complex and high value litigation in the employment tribunal, High Court and appellate courts. He has regularly advised on restraint of trade issues including restrictive covenants, breach of confidentiality and team moves. Philip has also handled trade union disputes including recognition issues and injunctions to prevent industrial action. High value discrimination and whistleblowing claims have formed the core of his tribunal practice. Philip has a wide and varied experience in non-contentious issues where his in-house HR experience is invaluable. Such issues include managing redundancies, TUPE, disciplinary and grievance issues, managing sickness, drafting employment contracts, bonus communications, and policies and procedures.

Raoul Parekh

Raoul is one of the firm’s partners. He works across all areas of employment law, including advisory, litigation and transactional support. He has a particular focus on assisting international clients with their UK and EMEA employment law challenges. Raoul has significant experience of employment tribunal litigation, as well as High Court employee competition matters. He is also experienced in day-to-day HR support, including dealing with employee grievances and consultation processes, terminations and drafting contracts and policies. Raoul acts for several “professional employer organisations” (or PEOs), advising them on their UK and international employment compliance strategy and other issues. Prior to joining the firm, Raoul worked in Baker McKenzie’s London employment team. During this time, he also completed secondments to the in-house employment law teams at Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered Bank.

Sanika Karandikar

Sanika has experience across all areas of employment law including advisory, litigation and transactional support.

Sophie Vanhegan

Sophie has extensive experience in both High Court employment litigation and cross-border M&A transactions, Sophie is a true all-round employment lawyer. Her practice encompasses all aspects of UK employment law, including injunctions, team moves, unfair dismissals, bonuses and discrimination. She also has experience of outsourcings, TUPE, company restructures, redundancies and regulatory issues. Her clients include businesses in the financial services, technology, partnership and LLP sectors. Sophie’s recent client experience includes advising a FinTech company on enforcing a non-compete restriction against a former senior employee who had joined a competitor; defending a financial services firm in a multi-million pound discrimination dispute with a former employee; advising a bank on a protracted financial misconduct investigation involving a regulated person; and advising a major financial services client on a restructuring of its bonus deferral arrangements. She has also advised a range of clients on reopening their workplaces following the COVID-19 lockdown. Sophie is also a co-founder of the firm's Women's Leadership Initiative.