Sarah-Jane is an experienced employment lawyer who advises corporate, institutional, and individual clients on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious issues. She is frequently instructed by employers to act on grievance and disciplinary issues, performance management, sickness absence, family leave, and terminations (including redundancy processes). Senior executives turn to Sarah-Jane for advice on dismissals, negotiating settlement packages, and on contracts of employment, including restrictive covenants.
She has extensive expertise in advising on Employment Tribunal litigation and can present or respond to claims, and negotiate settlements. Recent Tribunal claims she has conducted include bringing proceedings on behalf of individual clients for constructive dismissal and age discrimination, sexual harassment and sex discrimination; and defending claims brought against her employer clients for unfair dismissal, equal pay and whistleblowing.
Sarah-Jane is a specialist advisor to the education sector, drawing on in-depth knowledge gained during secondments to Imperial College London and Eton College. She advises higher education institutions on employee relations issues, scientific misconduct, safeguarding issues, and the Prevent duty, as well as advising the country’s leading independent schools on employment issues, including pupil exclusions, parental complaints, and subject access requests.
I worked with Sarah-Jane over a stressful and uncertain period and she was brilliant. Not only did she deliver a great result, she also continually provided sound advice throughout the negotiation which kept me at ease. I highly recommend her.
Executive Director
Risk management, insurance brokerage and advisory companySarah-Jane is a highly experienced, professional employment lawyer. On a dispute with an employer, she clearly explained my options and recommended an approach that enabled me to achieve a good settlement in a timely and cost-effective way. She responded quickly to my queries throughout the process and followed up after the settlement to ensure I received amounts owing.
Director
Competition economics consultancy firmClear, honest advice. Very reassuring at a difficult time.
Senior Advisor
Consultancy firmGreat advice and very client focussed.
Director
Consultancy firmSarah-Jane is excellent at getting to grips with legal issues, offering pragmatic advice and solutions to complex matters. She is very responsive and sensible in her advice.
Ann Kelly, Head of Employee Relations
Imperial College LondonSarah-Jane is an exceptional and talented employment lawyer. For my personal case, she took care and time to thoroughly understand the history, details and nuances of my situation before structuring her advice. After taking time to understand my situation and asking well-considered questions, she was diligent in her application of the law to the case. Throughout the process Sarah-Jane provided regular updates and never needed to be chased. I found her proactive approach to be very comforting when going through a stressful employment case. Sarah-Jane will give clear advice that is in your best interest, but balances this clearly against what is relevant for the particular case and thus managing expectations. I would recommend the services of Sarah-Jane and thank her for being my trusted adviser during a difficult time.
Individual client
Sarah-Jane is the most caring lawyer I have ever met and to me she was an angel in a dark moment in my career. Her knowledge and skills are amazing, but what makes her stand out is the compassion and empathy she shows whilst still keeping it professional and setting expectations. Her help went way beyond just being my lawyer; she fought for me as a friend.
Individual client
Expertise
Non-contentious
- Drafting and advising on employment contracts, service agreements, consultancy agreements and internship agreements
- Drafting company policies and staff handbooks
- TUPE transfers
- All forms of family leave and pay
- Holiday and holiday pay
- Training for HR managers
Contentious
- Unfair dismissal, including constructive dismissal
- Discrimination and harassment
- Whistleblowing
- Disciplinary and grievance issues
- Performance management
- Restrictive covenants
- Breach of contract
- Redundancy
- Managing sickness absence
- Drafting, advising on, and negotiating the terms of, settlement agreements
- Dealing with and responding to subject access requests
- Conducting Tribunal litigation
Experience
General
- Advised a Brazilian public company listed on the Sao Paolo stock exchange and its subsidiaries on all employment matters arising from the £880m purchase of a UK Plc.
- Advised an employer on the termination of a director and shareholder and drafted and negotiated a complex settlement agreement.
- Advised an individual on her sexual harassment claim against her employer and negotiated a generous settlement package.
- Advised an employee on long-term sickness absence on her constructive dismissal, sex discrimination, and bullying and harassment claims against her employer and negotiated a generous settlement package.
- Conducted Tribunal claims on behalf of a national newspaper.
- Advised the sellers of the entire issued share capital of Hi Mum Said Dad on the employment side, including reviewing employment disclosure documents and the disclosure letter, reviewing, advising on and negotiating both the employment warranties and indemnities in the SPA and new service agreements and settlement agreements.
Education
- Conducted a Tribunal case on behalf of a group of independent schools and successfully defended a claim made by a former employee for unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal and religious discrimination.
- Advised a top independent school on a student exclusion, parental complaint, and dealt with a subject access request made by the parents.
- Reviewed and amended the employment sections of the statutes and regulations of a top collegiate university.
- Advised a top world-ranking London university on a TUPE transfer.
- Defended a claim against a university for unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments.
Charity
- Advised a charity on employment matters, from TUPE transfers to employee relations issues, including managing sickness absence, handling grievances and advising on disciplinaries and dismissals and I have recently reviewed and updated their policies and contracts.
- Reviewed an environmental law charity and amended their staff handbook.
- Reviewed and amended the safeguarding policy for Church of England Central Service.
- Reviewed and amended the safeguarding policy and procedures and code of conduct for a human rights charity.
- Advised on employment status and the differences between an employee, a worker and a self-employed contractor and reviewing and amending a services agreement for a Church.
- Advised War Child UK on the formation of a new foundation, facilitated by a shared platform, set up by War Child UK and War Child Holland and the TUPE implications of such. She negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the treatment of staff after the formation of the foundation.
- Advised the CEO and Board of Trustees of Save the Elephants charity on governance issues relating to payments to the founder of the charity, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, after he fell ill.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Member of the Employment Lawyers Association
Career
Sarah-Jane qualified as a solicitor in 2008. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2019, she worked at the following firms:
- Lewis Silkin
- Farrer & Co
- Morgan Russell