Stephen is an employment and labor lawyer who helps employers solve people and union issues.
Previously a senior HR professional, he is known for his practical, down-to-earth approach.
Stephen advises employers like you on all aspects of employment and trade union/industrial relations law. He will help you to improve employee experience, reduce people risks, resolve employee relations matters and, where things go wrong, defend (and if appropriate, settle) claims brought by employees and trade unions.
On the employment side, Stephen can provide you with practical advice on day-to-day employment-related issues such as grievances, disciplinary matters and capability issues. He can also help you with strategy relating to, and the implementation of TUPE matters, restructures, redundancies, changes to terms and conditions, and terminations (including settlement negotiations — whether collective, individual, complex or straightforward in nature). Stephen can also assist you with executive and non-executive appointments and terminations, and the employment aspects of commercial transactions.
His contentious employment practice includes defending claims brought in the employment tribunals, and bringing and defending appeals in the employment appeal tribunal and senior appellant courts. He also performs his own advocacy at hearings. Stephen has acted in cases involving a multitude of issues, including unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, detriment, wages and breach of contract claims. He also has an interest in civil litigation and deals with matters with an employment aspect to them before the county and high courts, such as in relation to breaches/threatened breaches of confidentiality and restrictive covenants, defamation proceedings, and debt/overpayment recovery.
On the labor/industrial relations side, Stephen is part of Eversheds Sutherlands’ national labor law team and can help you with collective and trade union/industrial relations matters. He has experience in managing union/employee recognition applications and relationships, union information requests, pay deals and other aspects of collective bargaining, s188 proceedings, industrial/strike action, and picketing. He can also help you to deal with contentious proceedings before the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), the employment tribunal and civil courts (such as TU detriment/discrimination claims, blacklisting claims and injunctive relief).
Before joining Eversheds Sutherland, Stephen worked in the in-house legal team at the General Medical Council, and also held various senior human resource management roles within both the private and public sectors.
- Visiting Lecture at the University of Law, lecturing on the universities various post-graduate, under-graduate and professional law programs (such as the LLB, GDL, LPC, SQE and masters degrees)
- Author for XpertHR
- Qualified as a Solicitor in 2015
- Post Graduate Certificate in Legal Practice (LPC) – distinction, 2013
- LLB (Hons) in Law – First Class with Honours, 2005
- Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management
- Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
- Member of the Employment Lawyers Association