England - London • Employment

Slaughter and May

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Slaughter and May is recommended for its M&A-linked employment work, as well as restrictive covenant enforcement and board-level appointments and terminations advice. Practice head Charles Cameron handles covenant negotiations and pension-related matters. Also central to the team are the senior employees and whistleblowing investigations-focussed Phil Linnard and ‘first class lawyer' Philippa O’Malley, who was promoted to partner in May 2023. Padraig Cronin retired in April 2023.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The employment law team of Slaughter and May does not only have a broad expertise on very high level and landmark transactions on which we have had the occasion to work together, but it is also very reliable in terms of dedication and embracing client's needs in terms of legal support and advice on overall strategy.’

  • ‘Phil Linnard is a highly valuable expert in employment law. He is incredibly smart and reactive and has a very pragmatic approach that allows meeting client's needs in the context of complex deals, especially transnational industrial reorganizations.’

  • ‘First-class knowledge. Incredible work ethic, doing whatever it takes to get the deal done on time.’

  • ‘Philippa O'Malley is an excellent lawyer with great commercial awareness and able to present complex issues in a clear way, with good practical solutions.’

  • ‘Great employment law team, professional, always on the ball and very friendly.’

  • ‘They are just the persons to go to in the UK, no doubt, especially Phil Linnard.’

  • ‘I recommend Philippa O'Malley.’

  • ‘Philippa O'Malley has supported us through a public-to-private takeover and many more things in between. She has an extremely calming manner and is clearly a first-class lawyer. Philippa always goes the extra mile and applies proper commercial acumen to her advice. She is first rate.’

Key clients

  • ASOS plc
  • Aviva plc
  • Bupa
  • De La Rue plc
  • Diageo
  • Drax Group plc
  • Land Securities Group plc
  • Prudential plc
  • RSA Insurance Group plc
  • Whitbread plc

Work highlights

  • Advised Ernst & Young LLP on the UK employment aspects of the proposed separation of its audit and consulting businesses, including employment issues relating to TUPE and governance.
  • Advised Next plc on the employment aspects of its acquisition out of administration of the majority of the assets of Joules, by a newly formed joint venture between Next and Tom Joule.
  • Advised FNZ Group Technologies Ltd on employment issues arising on the sale of financial technology provider GBST and on the subsequent re-acquisition of assets of GBST’s capital markets division.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Charles Cameron

Other key lawyers

Phil Linnard, Philippa O’Malley