“The law is just one piece of the jigsaw. Advising on messaging, sensitivities and employee relations, as well as understanding my client’s broader business aims, allows me to deliver real value.”

Gillian advises on the full range of employment law and HR issues, including disciplinary and grievance matters, long-term and persistent absence, performance improvement, employment status, and family and flexible working arrangements.

She has a particular interest in supporting clients to achieve significant change projects involving TUPE, collective redundancy, restructuring and changes to terms and conditions. She also has considerable experience in dealing with contentious employment matters: defending and pursuing claims relating to unfair dismissal, discrimination, breach of contract, and TUPE-related claims brought in the employment tribunal. Gillian often advises on matters with an international element, working with our specialist immigration team or with firms in our ‘best friends’ network of overseas advisers, as required. She is an experienced and engaging trainer, providing clients with bespoke training of various kinds tailored to their employees, HR teams, managers or boards.

She also leads our ‘Overseas Employment Advice’ team. In this role she uses our World Services Group network to develop advice to University sector and commercial clients in jurisdictions across the globe. She also helps those clients to implement the advice received.

Areas of practice include:

Sector experience includes:

Admitted

2013: Scotland

Relevant experience

General employment advice and litigation support

Advising leading Scottish universities on all employment law issues arising across their workforces, including sensitive grievance matters; handling long-term absence cases, and complying with the duty to make reasonable adjustments; implementing performance improvement processes, and providing support on contract and policy review and development; employment status disputes; and delivering change projects.
Providing strategic advice to the Board of a national charity on the removal of their CEO following a relationship breakdown. Included advice on the employment law mechanics of the termination, and support on internal messaging and media statements.
Representing one of the UK’s largest banks to defend and resolve high-value Employment Tribunal claims raised by senior employees involving issues of equal pay and discrimination, whistleblower protection, and unfair dismissal.
Providing start-up support to tech businesses, advising on employment status, engaging contractors, IR35 and protecting company IP.

Change projects and TUPE

Supporting an international cosmetics brand with the successful delivery of an intra-group restructure, involving transfer of employment, redundancy consultation, and changes to employee terms and conditions.
Advising a Board of Trustees on the planning and implementation of a significant change to employee terms and conditions, including withdrawal from a public sector pension scheme in a partly unionised environment.
Advising a business enterprise client over several years with local authority tendering exercises, including advising on their obligations under TUPE in their role as either receiving or transferring employer, including supporting the client in each case to go ‘above and beyond’ the basic TUPE requirements to achieve a transition reflective of their core organisational values.

International

Working with a multinational client to implement a global staff handbook with supplementary manager guidance covering all jurisdictions in which they operated, balancing the desire for consistency with the requirement for local legal compliance.