Glenn Hayes

Practice Areas

Glenn leads Hill Dickinson’s Commercial Employment Team for Leeds. He is an experienced employment lawyer, and was previously National Head of Employment Law at Irwin Mitchell.

Glenn has significant experience of advising on the enforcement and defence of restrictive covenants, senior level appointments and exits, large-scale redundancies, TUPE and outsourcing.

He is also an experienced Employment Tribunal advocate, specialising in complex cases involving executive terminations, discrimination and whistleblowing.

Glenn has particular expertise supporting companies in the financial services, manufacturing and professional services industries.

Career

Glenn started as a trainee in 2000 at Irwin Mitchell before qualifying in 2002, being promoted to Associate Level in 2005 and partner in 2000, being the firm’s youngest partner at the time. He was promoted to National Head of Employment in 2020 before leaving to join Hill Dickinson in October 2013.

Glenn set up the Leeds Employment Commercial Team and has grown this to 6 people in the space of 12 months to supplement the Employment Health Team already based in Leeds.

He plays a key role in driving the firm’s wider employment teams forward and in particular with the introduction of new employment products and services to the firms existing and prospective client base.

Glenn’s arrival has been much publicised in the Lawyer in particular and was described in December 2023 in the top 10 hires of 2023. This continues to make headlines throughout 2024.

The top 10 hires of 2023: Northern edition - The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs - https://www.thelawyer.com/the-top-10-hires-of-2023-northern-edition/

Hill Dickinson and Paul Weiss have much in common - The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs - https://www.thelawyer.com/hill-dickinson-and-paul-weiss-have-much-in-common/

Employment lawyers, go North - The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs - https://www.thelawyer.com/employment-lawyers-go-north/

He has extensive experience of advising in transactional matters and has a particular expertise in TUPE acting for both buyers and sellers (and those involved in service provision changes) on all legal and practical matters.

He has acted for both employers and employees on claims for breach of contract, unfair and constructive dismissal, all aspects of discrimination matters, equal pay, whistleblowing and unlawful deduction from wages claims. He is regarded as a holiday pay expert and also advises on industrial relations matters.

He is well known for his straight-talking practical advice.

Glenn has a wide-ranging employment practice with clients from a variety of sectors using him for their employment law needs. He receives work from a wide variety of sources including accountancy firms, other law firms, and an extensive network.

He has advised on a number of large scale Settlement Agreement projects and has extensive experience of running these.

Glenn is recognised for his technical expertise in specialist areas such as holiday pay and overtime, assessing employment status and providing tactical and strategic support to businesses to assess and minimise risk.

Glenn is a regular presenter at seminars and training events and is invited to speak at large scale conferences. He has been the judge at a number of Mock Tribunal events arranged for clients and has presented seminars for third parties and clients/contacts.

Professional Memberships

Glenn is a member of the Employer’s Law Association

Publications

Glenn is a regular contributor to various newspapers such as the Times, and the Independent and also provides commentary on employment law matters to such publications such as Personnel Today and People Management.

Personal

Glenn is the father to 2 children, has played County Level Hockey for 2 different counties and has coached hockey when he retired from playing.

He now plays golf, and enjoys spending time with his wife and children.

Clients

Glenn’s main clients include Audacia Limited, Begbies Traynor Plc, Diligenta limited (a division of Tata Consultancy Services), Examworks, Foundever and Xeinadin. He advised a number of recruitment companies also and looks after some of the firm’s key accounts.

Work Highlights

Glenn has advised on cases in the Employment Tribunal which have been listed for 4 weeks in duration and has advised on cases worth over 6.5m.

He was involved in the lead employment case on part time workers and holidays, McMenemy vs Capita Business Services Limited, successfully defending the claim in the Court of Session in Scotland as well as advising on many matters in the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

This year, key case highlights conducted or supervised by Glenn include:

- Advising a heavily unionised employer on its fractious issues with a trade union over the issue of pay negotiations

- Successfully defending a large discrimination case which had been running for over 3 years, getting the Claimant to withdraw the matter prior to the final hearing;

- Advising the Senior Vice President of BP International on his service agreement when moving from Spain to the UK;

- Advising Xeinadin and the Manchester corporate team on its acquisition of three Haines Watts offices in the towns of Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Hessle.

- Advising the Celnor Group on the acquisition of Construction Materials Testing Ltd (CMT) to boost Celnor’s Built Environment division.

Industry Sector Expertise

Glenn advises across a number of different sectors but has a particular interest in professional services and manufacturing.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

English Law

Languages Spoken

Conversational French

Experience

Glenn joined Irwin Mitchell in August 2000 after completing his legal practice course at Northumbria University where he obtained a distinction. He qualified as a solicitor in 2002 before being made a partner in May 2010.

He was made National Head of the firm’s Employment Team in 2020. In that time, the team won the coveted Employment Team of the Year award twice, according to Personnel Today.

Education