Bevan Brittan LLP‘s education department assists higher education clients with employment, student-related matters, property and corporate and commercial work, as well as with academic partnerships and sexual misconduct investigations. Virginia Cooper and Ashley Norman jointly head the group. Amy Tschobotko (disputes) and Rachel Soundy (corporate/M&A) are both key team members. The team was strengthened with the arrival of Amrita Hurst, who specialises in safeguarding and is particularly experienced in appeals in the First-tier Tribunal, legal director Helen Feinson in Leeds, who handles procurement and subsidy control, legal director Tijen Ahmet in Birmingham, who covers UK business immigration and support, as well as Kelly Simpson in Leeds, who joined from the in-house legal team at Leeds University.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The team has a good range of skills and knowledge. But the bit that differentiates them is the consideration for us as a charity and client. There is consideration for our needs and an understanding of our particular context. They are able to maintain consistency between asks and help us develop a total legal set up that works for us.'
- 'Rachel Soundy is superb - she is responsive, considerate and provides a wealth of valuable advice and support. She carefully considers our needs and identifies the best value for money level of support. She is also quick to support on urgent areas and directs us to the best parts of the firm.'
- 'Anne Palmer is fantastic. Extremely attuned to the needs of clients in the education sector, a brilliant technical lawyer, great tactical instincts and also a pleasure to work with.'
- 'Anne Palmer is always calm, sensible and very pragmatic. She has a wealth of experience dealing with employment claims against educational institutions.'
- 'The team understands how universities operate and they always provide sound, practical advice. They are friendly and approachable and I enjoy working with them. I have instructed them on a range of matters including land law, employment and insurance. They meet deadlines and can be relied on to respond quickly in the event of an emergency. Bevan Brittan have a good working knowledge of current issues affecting universities such as the freedom of speech or harassment legislation and they can provide training or guidance on recent case law or legislation which is unique to our sector.'
- 'Anne Palmer is advising the university on a particular difficult employment matter. She has been great at providing a steer on mitigating risk and following the right approach.'
- 'Ashley Norman has been my main point of contact. He has provided general employment law advice, especially relating to disciplinary matters or advice on fixed term contracts and redundancy. The land law team have undertaken a range of work including sale of property, eviction and planning issues.'
Key clients
- University of Oxford
- University of York
- Cardiff and Vale College
- De Montfort University
- The Alan Turing Institute
- University of West London
- Royal Holloway, University of London
- Trinity College, Oxford
- Newbury College of Further Education
- Birmingham City University
- Ambition Institute
- Swansea University
- Cogrammar
- University of West of England
- Kew Gardens
Work highlights
- Acting for a Russell Group university on several very complex employment tribunal matters including an appeal in the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
- Advising a number of higher education clients on M&A and joint venture work with an aggregate value of £500m.
- Acted for Ambition Institute on a variety of legal matters.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Virginia Cooper, Ashley Norman