Employment

Employment is a central focus of our business, with over 170 lawyers in our team supporting our clients in managing their people.

Consistently top-ranked amongst our peers for over two decades, we advise UK and multinational clients of all sizes, with most of our partners independently rated as leaders in the field. Not only do we have one of the UK’s largest employment law practices (covering both Great Britain and Northern Ireland), we have truly global reach as members of Ius Laboris, the world’s leading employment law alliance, and with our Asia Pacific base in Hong Kong and our Dublin offices.

Underpinning the success of any business are its people. Following events of the past few years, businesses are making strategic decisions such as how, when and where their workforce work, how to reward them and ways to provide a diverse and sustainable workplace culture. Whilst the evolution of the ‘employment deal’ brings opportunities, it also creates risk.

I don't know why a company would use another firm for employment advice: Lewis Silkin has fantastic lawyers who offer excellent, commercial advice and charge substantially less than bigger City firms. They have an unparalleled breadth of offerings (all of which we have used).
Legal 500 2022

Our award-winning specialist employment team supports clients on the full range of work – from day-to-day HR support through to advising on the most complex or contentious of disputes - with a track record of leading precedent setting cases on issues of the day. We have the agility to be fully flexible to what our clients need, providing the right team at the right price for all types of companies whatever their stage of development. Going far beyond just legal advice, we also support clients with a range of innovative, value-adding services including consultancy, training and flexible legal resourcing.

Meet our team

Accolades

Chambers and Legal 500 have rated us as a Tier 1 practice for over a decade and this year name 31 of our partners as “leaders in their field”.
Who’s Who Legal have twice named us “Global Law Firm of the Year for Labour, Employment & Pensions”. 19 of our lawyers are currently ranked in Who’s Who - substantially more than any other firm in the UK.
“Approachable, friendly, thorough and responsive. They not only provide excellent legal advice tailored to our organisation, but they also provide great thought leadership and industry insights.” (Chambers & Partners 2023)
“They have covered almost all aspects of employment law. They not only focus on the strategic issues for their clients, they have also derived innovative ways in which to structure their teams to accommodate their clients’ needs and provide a cost-effective solution. They also have a very strong bench and the associates are switched on and a pleasure to deal with.” (Legal 500 2023)
“Lewis Silkin have grown from strength to strength in recent years and there is not one area of employment law that they are unable to cover.” (Legal 500 2023)
“The size of the team means that there is extraordinary strength in depth and an unrivalled degree of expertise across all aspects of employment law. The Lawyers are also responsive, commercial and down to earth” (Chambers 2022)
“Lewis Silkin has provided my team with exceptional support and advice over the years. They are true partners in the way they work with not only our in-house lawyers but other key stakeholders in our business. We rely on them as trusted advisers for all of our key cases and decisions in the employment sphere.” (Legal 500 2022)
“Extraordinary strength in depth. Excellent training and empowering of associates means that everyone in the team can be relied upon to provide exceptional work.” (Legal 500 2022)

Related items

Related services

Mock Employment Tribunal

11 July 2023

Numbers of Employment Tribunal claims remain high and many hearings are still taking place entirely online.

Think twice before filing an employment related claim directly to the High Court

27 June 2023

Lewis Silkin’s litigation team acting for the Defendant was successful in striking out a claim brought before the High Court and also successfully resisted an appeal against the Master’s decision to strike-out the Plaintiff’s claim.

Managing an International Workforce conference - Fully Booked

22 June 2023

Lewis Silkin’s Managing an International Workforce conference provides a long-awaited (and in-person) opportunity to catch up with your peers, hear the latest from employment lawyers from around the world and find out what’s on the international employment law horizon.

Employment law across the globe - what's happened and what's coming up?

21 June 2023

Our round-up of key developments in employment law since our last conference in June 2022.

EU Platform Workers Directive – a further step forward

15 June 2023

The Platform Workers Directive just inched closer towards being adopted by the EU. This article looks at how the Directive is shaping up as it nears its final stages.

Irish Data Protection Commission Issues Guidance for Employers

15 June 2023

In this two-part series, Linda Hynes, partner in the Employment, Immigration and Reward team of Lewis Silkin Ireland, sets out what employers need to take away from the recent DPC guidance. The first in the series looks at the Data Protection in the Workplace: Employer Guidance.

The building blocks of employment status: tribunal finds Purplebricks estate agent to be neither employee nor worker

15 June 2023

An employment tribunal has recently considered the employment status of those providing estate agency services on behalf of Purplebricks Group Plc. Of particular interest to organisations operating franchise and licensing models are the factual circumstances identified in support of this decision.