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Rebecca S. Houghton

Senior Associate
Employment & Immigration Solicitor

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Languages: Spanish (intermediate)

Rebecca Houghton is an Employment & Immigration Senior Associate in our Employment, Labor & Pensions practice group.

Rebecca is dual-qualified in employment and immigration law. Rebecca joined Eversheds Sutherland in 2016 and trained as a solicitor with the firm, qualifying in 2018.

Whether you are in the public or private sector, Rebecca can work closely with you to ensure your new hires/current employees have the right-to-work in the UK. She can help you obtain a Skilled Worker sponsor license, assist with the application process for new hires/employees to obtain permission to live and work in the UK, provide strategic advice on Brexit and advise on all aspects of the prevention of illegal working.

A large part of Rebecca's role is helping businesses like yours with their global mobility and international recruitment, by managing multi-jurisdiction immigration helplines, coordinating right-to-work projects and supporting work visa applications.

Rebecca also advises on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law. She can deal with tribunal claims for you which cover complex issues such as whistleblowing and perceived associative disability discrimination. She can also provide advice on employee severances including the negotiation of settlement agreements; general day-to-day HR advice; absence and performance management; business restructuring/redundancies; and policy terms and conditions. Rebecca's contentious/non-contentious employment workload is approximately 50:50.

Rebecca regularly prepares and delivers training to legal and business teams on all areas of employment and immigration matters.

Rebecca has acted for a number of UK FTSE 250 companies as well as US and European listed and headquartered companies. She works for clients across a number of sectors with a particularly strong experience in the technology and telecoms sectors, financial services sector and energy sector, having spent time on secondment at both EDF Energy Renewables and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

In Rebecca's spare time, she enjoys Crossfit, hiking and singing. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion.

Rebecca's recent experience includes:

  • leading on the production of right to work guidance notes for 51 jurisdictions for a large global company
  • managing a 74 jurisdiction global immigration helpline for a large multinational client
  • coordinating a 38 jurisdiction project on undertaking right to work checks during the COVID-19 pandemic for a large tech client
  • overseeing a project to thoroughly review and update right to work guidance notes as a result of Brexit for a large global client
  • providing advice on changes to the right to work checks in light of the new immigration regime in the UK for a multinational consumer client
  • delivering Home Office-style dawn raid right to work audits at multiple sites of a multinational client across the UK
  • providing full immigration support to a leading energy client to sponsor migrant workers in business-critical roles
  • supporting an international manufacturing client with a request from a senior member of the business to work remotely from Portugal for the remaining period of a retention arrangement
  • utilizing our global network to provide advice on immigration and employment law advice in Australia, including; local employment rights, tax and social security, permanent establishment and health and safety requirements when working remotely
  • supporting a Bank in a high profile sex discrimination and whistleblowing case
  • helping a leading financial services institution in the defense of six Employment Tribunal claims which have been conjoined and listed for a full day merits hearing
  • Document Retention by Sponsors of Tier 2 Migrants: What is Changing?, 12 September 2019, Eversheds Sutherland briefing
  • Part of the Band 1 Employment team for the North East in Chambers & Partners
  • Part of the Tier 1 Employment team for the North in the Legal 500
  • Part of the 2018 Team of the Year - Employment at the Northern Law Awards
  • Member of our Diversity & Inclusion networks
  • Part of the Corporate Responsibility committee in our Newcastle office
  • Member of the Employment Lawyers Association
  • Member of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Northumbria University, 2014-2015
  • Graduate Diploma in Law, Northumbria University, 2013-2014
  • BA (Hons) in Geography, Northumbria University, 2010-2013
Rebecca Houghton

Senior Associate

Employment & Immigration Solicitor

Rebecca Houghton

Senior Associate

Employment & Immigration Solicitor

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