It’s probably fair to say that 2021 has not been an easy year for anyone. However, despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve worked hard to continue to provide an exceptional service to our clients and have continued to support the communities in which we work and live. Here are some of our highlights.
Despite all the challenges, we’ve managed to continue helping clients navigate though UK employment law. Whilst doing so, we’ve maintained our excellent independent rankings in the UK Legal 500, our top ranking as ‘ThreeBestRated’ for employment law in Newport and we continue to consistently rank in the top 3 in Google Voice Searches for the top employment lawyers in Newport.
Since our launch, we’ve made employment law work for 385 clients in England and Wales, plus one in France and one in the BVI. Our clients mainly consist of employers and employees.
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We continue to put our clients at the heart of everything we do. We’ve been delighted with the great client feedback received and with the kindness shown by so many.
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We’ve successfully represented clients in a large number of Employment Tribunal claims and have advised across a wide range of matters including:
Employer clients:
advising on protective measures against executives in breach of restrictive covenants;
successfully defending multiple claims of unfair/constructive/wrongful dismissal, disability/race/sex discrimination, health & safety/whistleblowing detriment and breach of contract;
bringing counter-claims against employees who have sued their employers for breach of contract;
drafting and negotiating different types of employment contracts;
advising on issues arising from refusals of flexible working requests;
conducting grievance investigations into bullying/sexual harassement on behalf of law firms and other clients;
drafting appropriate HR policies and procedures/staff handbooks for multiple businesses;
advising on complex whistleblowing matters;
advising on the employment aspects of mergers, acquisitions, outsourcings, relocations and restructurings.
Employee clients:
advising on numerous settlement agreements;
defending executives facing High Court injunctions for alleged breach of restrictive covenants; negotiated substantial settlement packages;
advising on race discrimination from managers at a recruitment company;
advising departing employees on challenging/getting around various restrictive covenants;
advising in relation to disciplinary and grievance hearings;
advising whistleblowers and negotiating severance packages;
advising in redundancy situations, negotiating improvements to severance packages;
presenting ET1/Claims and managing claims for unfair and wrongful dismissal (mainly sham/unfair redundancies, trumped up misconduct/underperformance allegations);
defending those falsely accused of sexual harassment, negotiating severance packages;
advising those facing attempted clawback of training costs and salary overpayments.
Slate Consult
Our specialist consultancy, Slate Consult, continues to provide employers with cost-effective access to expert employment law advice as well as HR, Health, Safety & Environmental services to ensure they are legally compliant.
Wellbeing
At Slate Legal, wellbeing continues to be synonymous with water sports and long may this continue! Consequently, one of our KPI’s is ‘Time on Water’. As in 2020, this year our regular windsurf sessions were occasionally thwarted by the powers that be imposing lockdowns/reservoir closures, however we still managed to get in a good number of windsurfing sessions at Llandegfedd reservoir. We also managed to enter several sailing races in Cardiff Bay and out in the Bristol Channel on the weekend with Cardiff Bay Yacht Club.
Community investment
Each year we’ve tried to give something back to our local community through a variety of initiatives.
For the sixth year running, we took part in national pro bono week and spent 5 November 2021 providing employment law advice to employees and micro businesses across Wales and England on a pro bono basis.
We’ve provided financial assistance to The Royal Welsh, Wales’ oldest and most decorated regiment, which has a barracks not far from our office in Newport.
We’ve continued to provide financial support to our local Charity of the Year 2021, Sparkle at Serennu Children’s Centre in Rogerstone, Newport - which we can see from our office. Sparkle does a fantastic job helping lots of local children and young people with a disability or developmental difficulty.
We’ve also continued to assist in fundraising for our local school, High Cross Primary.
Championing children’s rights
Our 10 month campaign to install a ‘beeping sound’ at the Pelican Crossing next to High Cross Primary School ended successfully in September when Newport County Council finally did the right thing - just in time for the return to school of hundreds of children. We believe that children’s rights are no less important than the rights of disabled people and it’s a pity that it took so long for the Council to take the action requested in relation to what should have been an obvious ‘no-brainer’.
Environment
Since our launch on 1 January 2016, we’ve strived to minimise our carbon footprint. We made the SME Climate Commitment in September this year to halve emissions before 2030 and achieve net zero before 2050.
Responsible Business Practices
We’ve always taken our Corporate Social Responsiblity seriously. In July we were very proud to become one of the first law firms in Wales to receive accreditation to the Good Business Charter. This aims to raise the bar on business practices across 10 areas: real living wage, fairer hours and contracts, employee well-being, employee representation, diversity and inclusion, environmental responsibility, paying fair tax, commitment to customers, ethical sourcing and prompt payment. And we are in good company, joining the likes of Capita, Deloitte, the CBI, TSB, St.James’s Place, Aviva, Eversheds Sutherland and Amnesty International.
We love what we do and would be happy to talk to you about how we can make employment law work for you in 2022. Call us on 07956 085635, email us at info@slatelegal.co.uk or click here and complete our enquiry form and we'll get back to you asap.
That’s it from us for 2021. We hope 2022 brings more normality for you. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.