Employment, Human Resources & Pensions

We act for over 200 Registered Providers of housing, including members of London’s 15 largest housing associations (G15). This means that all our lawyers benefit from a built-in knowledge of the social housing sector. We utilise this experience to offer the most up to date and expert advice to Registered Providers and not for profit organisations across all aspects of the employment, HR and pensions issues they face in the day to day running of their business. With our sector knowledge we are able to anticipate the needs of our clients, adopting a pro-active approach.

We know how important it is to spot changes in the law ahead of time, and so are dynamic in our approach to developing areas of employment law.

A Focus on You

We believe that sound, easily implemented Employment, HR & Pensions advice is essential to your organisation and to its ultimate success. That’s why you need lawyers who have experience in providing clear, proactive and commercially minded advice in relation to your most important asset – your employees. Our Team will work in partnership with you to achieve your strategic long term objectives as well as providing support on day to day operational issues.

Clients commend our integrated Employment Department for the depth and diversity of our knowledge across the full range of contentious and non-contentious employment, HR and pension issues and how, for our particular specialisms in advising RPs of housing and providers of care and support, those interplay with governance and regulatory issues and requirements. We consider ourselves unique in holding a position that spans employment, pensions, governance and housing/care regulation. We are able to provide an exceptional service because we ensure we understand our clients’ business and the specific regulatory obligations that apply to each of them. We place our emphasis on fully understanding the objectives of each individual client and then finding the most appropriate route to achieve those objectives. We provide a dedicated team of lawyers to each of our clients with the right mix of experience and expertise so we can deliver cost effective advice and offer creative solutions to minimise your risks in achieving your objectives.

Our clients in the social housing and care and support sectors include members of London’s 15 largest housing associations (G15) and national and specialist providers of housing, care and support. All our lawyers benefit from a built-in knowledge of the social housing, care and support sectors and the particular legal and regulatory requirements, including those of the HCA and CQC. We utilise this experience to offer the most up to date and expert advice, and with our sector knowledge we are able to anticipate the needs of our clients, adopting a pro-active approach.

Each team member is experienced in providing understandable advice to clients of many different types and backgrounds, working with experienced HR professionals to operational staff trying to get through the complexities of employment law without an in-house HR resource. We work to the style and approach that suits you.

We ‘Get’ Employment, HR and Pensions

We provide strategic and operational advice to small, medium and large employers. From the application of policies and procedures in an individual case to how to embark upon wholesale terms and conditions changes in a unionised workforce, we can support clients at a level of detail that is practical as well as legal. We don’t just advise, we ‘do’, for example conducting investigations on behalf of clients and reporting findings to Boards – experience that then feeds back into the advice we give to clients doing the same for themselves.

Our strategic work includes: advising upon the best method of achieving a merger or acquisition and how to bring the workforce through the change that such ventures entail, and pay and reward strategies including different ideas for retaining staff in high demand.

We have a wealth of experience defending all types of tribunal claims from complex multi-claimant equal pay and sex discrimination claims to the straight forward unfair dismissal claim. We will work with you at an early stage in order to prevent claims being issued but if this is unavoidable we will ensure that our advice puts you in the best possible position to defend any claim.

We review and prepare Executive contracts of employment and Board Member Agreements for Services. We also act at the other end of the relationship when there is cause to remove Executives and/or Board Members and can advise upon the regulatory and governance considerations in making such decisions.

We advise on all aspects of pension law, such as your pension obligations on TUPE transfers, under Fair Deal when dealing with staff transfers from the public sector, and the terms of admission to various public sector pension schemes including the Local Government Pension Scheme, NHS pensions, and Social Housing Pension Scheme. We also advise on steps that can be taken to mitigate and manage accrued and ongoing pension liability in conjunction with financial advisers and auto enrolment.

Our Information Team

Our cross-departmental Information Team consists of specialists from our housing management & property litigation, employment, litigation & dispute resolution and corporate teams, advising a large array of clients on data protection and freedom of information issues.

More Than Just Advice

We know that Employment law is constantly evolving so we keep our clients up to date with the latest developments through regular updates to our employment blog as well as our Employment Seminar Programme. We also offer bespoke in-house training services to HR Advisors and key executives and managers so they have the tools and knowledge to handle everyday issues independently.

Our clients also benefit from our ability to draw upon other specialist departments within Devonshires.

In accordance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s guidelines on transparency, further details and information on our fees can be found on our Regulatory Information Page.