Susan advises on all aspects of the employment relationship, as well as the increasingly common flexible variations on that traditional model. Susan also acts regularly in partnership disagreements, boardroom difficulties and shareholder disputes. She specialises in the resolution of disputes arising in the workplace, often with compliance, safeguarding and regulatory angles. Susan has a particular expertise in Church matters and regularly advises in clergy discipline matters. She has advised dioceses and parishes on issues ranging from discrimination to redundancy, allegations of abuse and disciplinary action. Susan has advised one particular diocese over several years, on a wide range of employment issues. These matters have included race, religion, disability and sexual orientation discrimination claims, unfair dismissal, redundancy, part-time working issues, disciplinary matters arising out of misconduct, and the legal position of interns, particularly in relation to National Minimum Wage.

Susan’s other employer clients sit within the professional services, education, charities and not for profit sectors. These clients will often seek support throughout the investigation of disciplinary matters, particularly where reputational risk is identified and strategic input needed.  Susan is regularly engaged to advise from all angles on internal investigations.  She was extensively involved in the Anglican Church strand of the statutory Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, representing individuals who came under criticism for their response to reports of non-recent abuse.  She has since represented a number of office holders who have been investigated for their handling of safeguarding matters.  Susan has a particular expertise in discrimination cases and has advised an Islamic charity on alleged disability discrimination and represented several charitable bodies in successfully resisting discrimination claims in the Employment Tribunal.

In addition to advising on queries (and occasionally litigation) on the recruitment process, Susan assists employer clients from start-ups to large institutions clients from start-up level in ensuring they have the right framework of policies and contracts, and builds long-term relationships with her clients to ensure support is in place whenever difficulties arise.

Susan deploys her extensive experience of dispute resolution in acting for both employers and employees, and pursues her clients’ interests vigorously and commercially, whether by negotiation, mediation, arbitration or litigation in the Employment Tribunal or High Court.

Recent Experience

• Successfully resisting a claim against a diocesan bishop for age discrimination.
• Assisting trustees of a Higher Education institution navigate the very sensitive circumstances of the exit of its principal.
• Advising on an investigation into an allegation of discrimination by the principal of a college in the Higher Education sector.
• Guiding a diocesan bishop through the handling of an external complaint into the alleged misconduct by his Diocesan Registrar (legal adviser).
• Advising a not-for-profit entity on a local authority mandated investigation into misconduct by one of its employees in a safeguarding context.
• Representing a senior executive whose role was eliminated while she was on maternity leave.
• Assisting a consultant breast surgeon on her negotiated exit from a toxic workplace.
• Advising an Oxford college in relation to governance issues and on the drafting of a contract for the new principal.