In order to run a successful company and avoid costly setbacks, it’s vital that business leaders understand employment law for employers. Our employment law solicitors at Ashtons Legal have extensive experience in supporting businesses across a range of sectors.

We help companies to understand and follow employment laws, including drafting policies, procedures and employment contracts, as well as supporting with employee disputes. With our support and guidance, businesses can prevent mistakes, retain their reputation and attract top talent.

It can be difficult to navigate the nuances and complexities of employment law, even more so because these laws tend to develop and change over time. Our employment lawyers can support you to stay up to date, protecting you and the business you’ve built.

Ashtons Legal is highly ranked across a number of areas by leading independent client guides Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500. We have a fantastic reputation thanks to our transparent, pragmatic legal advice, along with our commercial expertise and keen understanding of employment law matters.

Our team includes experienced employment lawyers and CIPD-qualified HR professionals. We act for a wide range of clients, from owner-managed and family businesses to national companies and public sector clients, reflecting our depth of knowledge. Rest assured, you’ll have all the help you need, when you need it, in one place.

Contact our employment law solicitors

For expert employment law advice for employers, please contact our local offices in Bury St EdmundsCambridgeIpswichLeeds or Norwich.

Alternatively, please fill in our online enquiry form, and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.

Our employment law expertise

Our employment lawyers provide advice on matters including:

The start of the relationship, contracts and Policies

Contracts support you to direct the relationships between you and your staff and outline the legal obligations for both parties. There are different types of employment relationships your business may wish to engage with, including employee, self-employed, contractor, and workers. Our lawyers can advise you on what might be best suited to the needs of your business.

To provide your business with clarity and structure, you’ll need clear HR policies. Such policies and procedures should help your employees to understand how the company works and what’s expected of them.

Our employment lawyers at Ashtons Legal can support organisations to draft employment contracts to reflect their needs, along with transparent HR policies such as:

  • Health and safety policies
  • Leave and time off policies
  • Sickness and absence policies
  • Equality and diversity policies
  • Disciplinaries and grievances
  • Performance review processes
  • Capability procedures.

Misconduct and disciplinary procedures

Where employees commit misconduct or gross misconduct, it may be necessary to invoke disciplinary proceedings against them. There are a wide variety of outcomes that may follow. Our employment law solicitors can assist you with following the correct process and advising on what outcome may result.

Capability procedures

If an employee displays an ongoing inability to perform their role, a capability procedure is used to handle the situation. The pre-established procedure should outline how the employer will manage the staff member’s inability to carry out the role. The goal is to establish why the employee’s performance is lacking, provide support or work towards a legally compliant dismissal if necessary.

TUPE, redundancy and restructure

The laws surrounding employee redundancy can be complicated. It’s vital that business leaders follow employment law and ensure that employee rights are upheld during the process. Ashtons Legal can offer full support with redundancy processes.

We can also offer support if you are restructuring your company and need to make changes to certain employees’ roles or even to entire departments.

If you’ve recently acquired a new business, you’ll need to be aware of any TUPE regulations that may be in place. The presence of TUPE legislation means that you may be obligated to keep on the employees who have been working for the previous owner.

Our employment law solicitors can support businesses with all manner of matters related to redundancy, restructuring and TUPE.

Recruitment processes

There are many key areas of employment law that affect recruitment processes. These include data protection, DBS checks, discrimination and permission to work in the UK.

Our specialist solicitors at Ashtons Legal have supported businesses in a range of different industries to plan and review their recruitment policies. With our help, you can ensure compliance as well as find and retain the best talent.

Employee data and monitoring

Employers possess the legal right to monitor the data of their staff members in the workplace. They have the option to monitor emails, calls, internet history or phone usage.

Monitoring employee data must be conducted in the right way, as the process comes with privacy risks and data protection rules. Our employment lawyers can advise employers on their rights and duties according to the Data Protection Act.

Withdrawing an employment offer

Under some circumstances, it may be necessary to withdraw a job offer because the candidate has not met the conditions of that offer. Various conditions might be associated with a job offer, including references, a DBS check or the right to work in the UK.

We can support businesses throughout the process of withdrawing a job offer, ensuring that they are following the correct procedures in line with employment law.

Succession planning

Succession planning is about defining the crucial positions and people within your business and then creating action plans so that other staff members can assume those roles if key individuals move on.

If you’re keen to future-proof your company and you’re not sure how to facilitate succession planning, we can offer expert legal assistance.

Protecting confidential information and intellectual property

If you are looking to protect specific types of information or to introduce restrictive covenants, our lawyers can provide you with commercial and technical advice and assist with preparing the requisite documents. Should there be issues arising, such as breaches of confidence, our lawyers can assist you with the next steps to take.

Exiting staff

In some cases, there may not be a disciplinary or capability reason causing an issue with a member of staff, but the business may feel that they have reached the end of the road with them. In such cases, a mutually agreeable parting of ways can be helpful. Our specialist solicitors can assist you in navigating these complex scenarios and preparing the necessary documentation to be legally compliant.

Disputes, employment tribunal claims and county court claims

When employee disputes arise, you’ll need to have processes in place to resolve them and move forward. We will do our best to support you using mediation processes. However, if we cannot resolve your dispute this way, we can offer guidance throughout employment tribunal claims or representation in county court claims.

Disputes may arise for a number of reasons, including discrimination, constructive dismissal, unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal or pay disputes. It’s vital that such disputes are handled in the right way, or else you risk damaging your reputation.

Our employment law solicitor fees

Our wide range of employment law services cover matters from litigation to HR consulting. Our employment law solicitors will align and combine the different legal matters that you need help with, ensuring you receive the best and fully compliant options at competitive prices.

At Ashtons Legal, we can provide our services on a retainer basis, including our standard retainer, premium retainer or helpline retainer. Our retainers give you exclusive access to downloadable HR documents covering many of the areas typically faced by in-house HR departments, and we can provide HR support services through portals. We also have trusted partners working in areas such as Occupational Health to connect you with.

We also offer a free initial health check of your existing employment contract and HR policies. Our expert lawyers will start off by assessing your needs and then offer an accurate price breakdown based on the support you require.

To make a quick enquiry, please use our simple online contact form.

Why Ashtons Legal is the smart choice for employment law advice for businesses

Our Employment Law team is led by Partner Ross Strowger, a specialist employment lawyer with extensive experience. Ross regularly works with businesses on a variety of employment law matters, supporting companies in different industries to protect their interests and facilitate ongoing success.

We’ve helped many clients to achieve favourable outcomes at employment tribunal proceedings. Many businesses come to us unsure if their current employment law processes and policies are up to date. Our specialist lawyers have supported many companies by reviewing their policies and making relevant recommendations to improve their processes, working relationships and compliance with employment law.

We are ranked for our employment law expertise by prestigious client guides the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners. This provides independent recognition of the quality of our legal services in this area.

Our employment law resources

Click here to read a handy guide to the latest key employment law facts and figures to help you keep up to date with the latest regulations. 

Please note: This information was correct at the time of publication in April 2023 and may be subject to change. The facts and figures are for guidance only and do not constitute legal or professional advice. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.

Contact our employment solicitors today

Our employment lawyers offer expert advice on a full range of employment law matters across England and Wales from our offices in East Anglia, the East of England, the East Midlands and the Northeast.

If you’re looking for employment law advice for employers, please contact your local Ashtons Legal office in Bury St EdmundsCambridgeIpswichLeeds or Norwich.

Alternatively, please fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.


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