EMPLOYMENT: An Introduction to London (Firms)

Ongoing Issues in Modern Employment 

Who could have predicted that a social media campaign like #metoo could have changed the world so much or that employment cases on behalf of senior individuals in the workplace would be at the centre of the culture wars?

The reality is that the mighty can fall (or be cancelled) so easily these days.

So, whilst it is understandable that senior executives, partners in professional service firms, consultant doctors, seasoned finance professionals and the like (our clients) will tend to focus on delivering revenues and good business/professional outcomes that please their bosses, clients, customers or patients, they misjudge internal cultural issues at their peril.

Sometimes the public defenestration can be well deserved (as with the case of Harvey Weinstein) with brave women and men standing up to the long-term abusers of power. But, on other occasions, it can feel very harsh with terminations happening just for making a well-intentioned if misplaced remark to a junior colleague or doing something that may have been considered normal (or even expected) at a drinks-fuelled staff party only a few years ago.

Further, with allegations of sexual harassment and bullying increasingly being treated as regulatory issues, it is not just people’s jobs that are being lost, but livelihoods. The stakes have never been higher.

Because so much now depends on this, clients in difficulty seek advice much earlier than they used to - getting input not just into arguing about severances, but way earlier, in terms of how to present a defence to a disciplinary case in the most compelling manner; and how to challenge not just disciplinary decisions and dismissals, but suspensions and even innuendo.

Equally, though, this change in culture is far from uniform. For every over-correction there are still no shortage of employees who are getting punished for calling out bad behaviour, whilst the “bad guys” (not always guys, of course) live on to fight another day, or even thrive. And they also rightly seek advice early. With so much technical complexity around, the question of who qualifies for protection as a whistle-blower presents the need to get it right when the issue is raised to seek the proper legal advice.

The sums involved in employment litigation may not be as high as in commercial cases or big corporate deals, but both individual reputations and firms can be destroyed by them - with Odey Asset Management being one of the more recent victims.

All of this sits alongside all the other things that employment lawyers get involved with - from negotiating new contracts and contesting team moves to arguments about bonuses, psychiatric injury caused by work, insurers not paying the benefits they should for those on long-term sickness leave, and of course disputes about severances that have no harassment or bullying element.

So, as long as there are unethical actors and people accusing colleagues of misconduct, and what was acceptable in one generation becoming problematic in the next, and people are being hired and fired and trying to steal clients (human nature does not change), employment lawyers will be busy.