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Robert Gray

Partner
robert-gray
Robert is a Partner in our Employment, Labor and Pensions Group and heads our education employment practice in our Manchester office. He advises education sector employers in the UK and internationally across a broad range of employment law and education governance matters. 

His work areas include: cross-border/international employment law issues, redundancy/restructuring, collective and trade union issues, senior terminations, complex internal disciplinary and grievance proceedings, discrimination and equality issues (and their interplay with academic freedom/freedom of speech), employment-related data privacy issues, ‘atypical’ working models (including sessional/term-time, zero hours and fixed-term contracts) and ‘whistleblowing’ cases. He also provides advice on governance and constitutional issues for education sector employers.

Robert’s recent experience includes:

  • advising an HE institution on the employment implications of a trans-national education project involving a collaboration with a Chinese university.  This involved project managing advice relating to the transfer of staff from the UK to China and the engagement of staff by the UK university to work in China.  The advice covered the university’s employment law obligations (under both UK and Chinese law), tax, immigration, the international transfer of personal data and pensions law
  • advising a US university on its contractual and statutory obligations when employing staff to work in the UK on its study abroad programme.  This engaged issues relating to statutory holiday pay entitlements for hourly paid and irregular hours workers engaged in the UK
  • advising a university on a complex internal grievance process involving allegations by two senior academics against the institution’s entire senior management team.  Robert worked with the university’s governing body to develop a bespoke policy to allow a committee of governors to hear the grievance and advised on a range of legal issues arising from the complaints, including trade union detriment, ‘whistleblowing’ protection, legal privilege, data privacy issues.  He also advised on the application of the university’s constitution to the complaint and the grievance process and the powers and duties of the governing body
  • assisting an institution on its implementation of new contractual models for ‘atypical’ workers. This included the phasing out of over 1000 of its hourly paid contracts and replacing them with new fixed-term and permanent fractional contracts. Robert’s input involved advising on the different contractual models for engaging hourly paid and the legal implications of each (including in relation to continuity of service, holiday entitlement and termination) and advising on implementation of the changes through a collective bargaining process (which engaged issues arising from the Supreme Court decision of Kostal UK v Dunkley)
Robert regularly delivers training and thought leadership sessions to education sector bodies including the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association, the Association of American Study Abroad Programmes, Independent Higher Education, Universities HR, the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the Association of Colleges.
Robert is recognised by Legal 500 for his employment law expertise and is described as the “go-to advisor for the education sector” in Eversheds Sutherland’s Manchester practice.  He leads a team that is acknowledged as providing “…a bespoke flexible approach on all occasions, with exceptional knowledge of all education matters in the education sector”.
  • Robert leads our Corporate Responsibility Committee in Manchester, working with local charity partners and other stakeholders to deliver Eversheds Sutherland’s national CR strategy
  • Robert is also a member of the North West Leadership Board of national charity, Business in the Community – a network of business leaders committed to changing business, transforming lives and helping the planet and communities thrive
  • Diploma in Legal Practice, College of Law, 2000-2001
  • LLB (Hons) Law, University of Nottingham, 1997-2000

robert-gray
Robert Gray

Partner

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