David has specialised in employment law for over twenty years and has comprehensive experience in advising on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment law and industrial relations issues. He has particular expertise in organisational change including collective redundancies, changing terms and conditions of employment, and the application of the TUPE Regulations. David advises well-known brands in the engineering, energy, media, advertising, education and leisure sectors.
As well as mainstream employment law advice, David has significant experience in advising on data protection and on the interrelationship between pension issues and the employment relationship.
David is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and is recognised as a leading individual in employment law by the Legal 500.
Expertise
- All day-to-day HR advice (e.g. disciplinary, grievance and absence issues)
- Contractual disputes
- TUPE and outsourcing
- Reorganisation and collective issues
- Drafting contracts, directors’ service agreements and staff handbooks
- Employment Tribunal claims
- Restrictive covenants and confidentiality
- Discrimination and equality issues
- Executive severance and settlement agreements
- Employment issues on corporate transactions
- Employment and HR training
- Advice on LLP member issues
- Data protection
Experience
- Appearing in the Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal for the successful party in the reported case of Eddie Stobart Ltd v Moreman and others [2012] IRLR 356, a leading case on the meaning of an “organised grouping of employees” for the purposes of service provision changes within the TUPE Regulations.
- Acting for a national media organisation in defending multiple Tribunal claims regarding a TUPE transfer to a company based in France, securing a successful outcome with the Tribunal concluding that a service provision change had taken place.
- Successfully defending a whistleblowing claim in the Employment Tribunal on jurisdictional grounds from a freelancer working in North America for a UK company with international operations.
- Advising a company in the energy sector on a major reorganisation and whether entitlement to enhanced early retirement pension benefits for relevant employees would be triggered as a result.
- Acting in relation to a number of large-scale outsourcing exercises particularly in relation to IT, advertising and editorial services, including negotiating TUPE contractual provisions and advice on consultation obligations.
- Acting for a Swiss-owned manufacturing company in obtaining an injunction from the High Court against a former employee who had gone to work for a competitor, taking confidential information with him.
- Advising various companies on senior executive and board level departures, securing confidential exits promptly and on favourable terms.
- Acted for an academy school in Bradford on employment law issues.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
David Poddington is ranked by the Legal 500 as a leading individual in employment law in the Yorkshire and Humber region. (2016 and 2017)
Recent editions have stated that David “achieves excellent results” (Legal 500 2016) and is “practical, commercial and responsive” (Legal 500 2015).
Previous editions of Legal 500 have described David as “a voice of reason”, “extremely diligent”, “brilliant and pragmatic”, and a lawyer who “understands business imperatives”.
Career
David qualified as a solicitor in 1998. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2016, he worked at the following firms:
- Taylor & Emmet
- Eversheds
- Hammonds