Julie Stewart’s experience includes the following:

Employment law advisory work

Advising upon:

• Employment contracts
• Staff handbooks, policies, procedures and Codes of Practice
• Benefit arrangements
• Directors’ fiduciary duties
• Consultancy agreements
• The employee v self-employed distinction
• Agency contracts
• Collective agreements
• Trade union and Staff Forum issues
• Information and consultation obligations
• TUPE transfers
• Work–life balance issues including home, part-time, flexible and fixed-term working
• Maternity, paternity, parental and other leave and pay entitlements
• Equal opportunities and diversity
• Unlawful discrimination, bullying, victimisation and harassment
• Working time compliance
• The Sunday working legislation in relation to retail employees
• Data protection and related Information Commissioner complaints and investigations
• Freedom of information and related Information Commissioner complaints and investigations.
• Charity Commission investigations and restraints applicable to charities when applying their funds towards leaving packages
• Disciplinary, grievance and performance management issues
• Whistleblowing
• Sickness absence and other ill-health issues
• Health and safety in the workplace
• Departures under settlement agreements
• Boardroom disputes
• Dismissals
• Implementing redundancies
• Obligations when providing references
• Post-termination restrictions and restraint of trade issues

 

Employment litigation

On behalf of individuals, employers, trade unions and liquidators bringing and defending Employment Tribunal claims relating to:

• Unfair dismissal
• Wrongful dismissal (notice pay)
• Redundancies
• Holiday pay
• Breach of contract
• Unlawful discrimination (all areas)
• Equal pay
• Information and consultation obligations
• Trade union issues
• Breaches of TUPE
• Human right infringements
• Protected disclosures (whistleblowing)
• Health and safety concerns
• Unlawful deduction from wages
• Employee status

On behalf of employees and employers, acting in County Court and High Court proceedings relating to:

• Injunctions
• Alleged breaches of restrictive covenants and unlawful interference with trade
• Alleged misrepresentations in the provision of references
• The recovery of Employment Tribunal costs awards
• Debt recovery proceedings

On behalf of an employer, successfully defending a complaint brought before OPAS (the Pensions Advisory Service) and the Pensions Ombudsman.

 

Employment projects

Julie works closely with our clients on their HR and employment law projects including on the following examples:

• Reviewing and evaluating a job evaluation scheme for a large charity
• Auditing and redrafting an entire bank of contracts, policies and procedures for a major telecommunications company
• Drafting a redundancy handbook for a national property developer
• Establishing dual contract arrangements for the mobile workforce of an international investment management organisation

 

Training and presentations

Julie runs a rolling programme of interactive training sessions for clients on wide-ranging topics such as:

• Equal opportunities
• Managing sickness absence
• Data protection
• Interview skills
• TUPE
• Disciplinary, grievance and poor performance processes
• Investigations
• Leadership skills training

 

Corporate transactions

Julie is a corporate support specialist. She has provided employment law advice in connection with many high profile, high value deals including advising the following:

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Kingfisher Leisure plc (the owner of Woolworths) on its £6 billion merger with the supermarket giant Asda
• Ladbrokes (the betting and gaming company) on its purchase of Coral for £375.5 million
• Nickelodeon (the television channel) on various acquisitions
• Daewoo (the car manufacturer) on various disposals and, ultimately, its closure
• Gleneagles Hospital UK on the sale of The Heart Hospital to University College London Hospital NHS Trust, the first private hospital to go back into the NHS
• SEGRO Plc (an international property investment and development company) on its sale of a power station for £49.25 million
• The Australian Mutual Provident Society (which provides wealth management advice, financial planning, banking and insurance products) on various acquisitions
• Westfield Shoppingtowns Limited (an Australian shopping centre group) on its purchase of seven shopping centres in the UK

Takeovers

• Kingfisher Leisure plc (the owner of Woolworths) in relation to the £13 million recommended cash offer made for it by Springwood plc
• Mission Testing plc (which offers a range of software testing services and consultancy solutions) in relation to its successful takeover by The Capita Group Plc

Joint Ventures

• Land Securities Plc (the UK’s largest Real Estate Investment Trust) on the employment law implications of its acquisition of properties from cement giant Blue Circle in a £60 million joint venture deal

Outsourcings, insourcings and co-sourcings

• SchlumbergerSema (a leading IT services company) on a co-sourcing arrangement entered into with the DVLA
• Wincor Nixdorf International (a hardware and software solutions group) on various co-sourcing arrangements
• An IT company on a proposed outsourcing of the Financial Times’ IT functions
• A haulage company on an out-sourcing of a milk supply function from Arla Foods
• The Metropolitan Police Authority on a large-scale outsourcing programme

PFI projects

• Partnership Property Management Limited (now called Trillium) on its acquisition of the Department of Social Security’s entire 700-building property portfolio for £400m in the Prime PFI project, the largest property transaction in the UK at the time
• The London Borough of Redbridge on the establishment of a PFI school, Oaks Park High School, established in Newbury Park
• The London Borough of Newham on a PFI social housing project

Reorganisations/restructurings

• Celotex Limited on the reorganisation of its two businesses into separate entities with separate, autonomous management teams and separate office premises
• A major group of companies on the restructuring of its Board of directors

Distribution, framework and interim operating agreements

• The London Borough of Greenwich on a framework agreement entered into with Deloitte & Touche in respect of the IT services for e-government projects
• Serco Investment Limited on an Interim Operating Agreement entered into in connection with the Manchester Metrolink

Demutualisations

• Scottish Widows on its demutualisation and acquisition by Lloyds TSB

 

Retainer work

Julie carries out retainer work (covering telephone and e-mail advice and employment law and HR updates) for a range of our clients.