Discrimination – Businesses

“They have a fantastic grasp of their subject and give exceptionally firm, clear advice. They do not sit on the fence”

Legal 500 UK 2021

We have extensive experience in advising businesses on allegations of all forms of discrimination including sex, race, disability, pregnancy and maternity, age, sexual orientation, religious belief and marital status. Frequently such claims arise as part of a grievance or disciplinary process and are asserted against not only the business but also named individuals. We can help you to analyse the issues arising, identify the appropriate processes for managing such allegations and assess the potential claims arising and the merits of the same to enable the business to make a commercial assessment of the risks arising and management of those risks.

We will consider with the business any remedial action to be taken, help with any training requirements and consider possible outcomes in the context of your business objectives.

We have extensive experience of acting for individuals asserting discrimination claims which enables us to anticipate how matters will develop and move accordingly.

We are experts in this field and we are here to help.

Examples of our work:

Acting for the UK subsidiary of a US investment management group in defence of a claim for maternity and sex discrimination arising from redundancy, to include the effective deployment of appropriate legal argument to rebut the allegation that there was no obligation to prefer the individual for an alternative role under the Maternity and Parental Leave Etc. Regulations 1999.
Acting for a substantial real estate company and senior managers named individually in claims brought by an employee for race discrimination, harassment and whistleblowing.
Advising a professional services partnership on complex disability discrimination issues arising with an under-performing employee. Dealt with the ‘decoupling’ of the under-performance issues with those arising from the employee’s ill health. We successfully supported the client in navigating careful engagement with the employee and Occupational Health, identifying issues arising, advising on reasonable adjustments and how to monitor performance in that context without exposing the client to an allegation of disability discrimination. No claims issued against our client.
Advising a global paper supplier in the management of sexual harassment allegations arising from an incident at work resulting in an assault of a sexual nature in the office. Careful and effective management resulted in the resolution of the matter with no claims arising against our client.