Archive for July 2019

gunnercooke partner, Rosie Burbidge, appeared in yesterday’s Financial Times talking about the use of blockchain in the jewellery sector

“For LVMH in their jewellery that uses diamonds, being able to prove that those diamonds are conflict-free and haven’t been used in some sort of terrorist funding is really important”… Blockchain is no silver bullet against the black market  (link may require subscription)

gunnercooke ramps up London presence with four new Corporate Partners

Challenger law firm, gunnercooke, has strengthened its London team bringing in four new partners and significantly boosting its corporate and finance presence in the City. Matthew Cahill, Simon McLeod, Graham Reid and Max Beazley have joined gunnercooke as partners. Capital Markets and Structured Finance partner, Matthew Cahill, draws on over 20 years’ magic circle law […]

Disciplinary Investigations and Unfair Dismissal

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently considered whether an employer is acting unfairly if it dismisses an employee without holding an investigation meeting. In Radia v Jeffries International, Mr Radia was dismissed following an unsuccessful employment tribunal claim against his employer. The Judge in that case found his evidence not to be credible in various […]

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has recently considered the rights of employees who are on-call.

In Frudd v Partington Group the employees worked at a caravan site and were expected to be on-call after their shifts until 8am the following morning. They claimed this was “time work” so that they were entitled to be paid the national minimum wage. The “sleep-in” exception in the Mencap case did not apply because […]

Acas Publishes New Guidance on Age Discrimination

Acas has published a new Guidance on Age Discrimination to help employers manage an age diverse workforce, prevent unfair treatment at work, and eradicate bias against older and younger workers. Follow the link to the Guidance, here. The Guidance includes the following ‘top ten obligations’ as well as a myths v facts sheet. 1. Ageist […]

Reports find harassment and bullying in Parliament

Two reports out this week have found repeated instances of bullying and harassment in Parliament and amongst staff working for some MPs or political parties. The news that bullying and harassment are rife within and around Parliament comes as no surprise given previous reports and the small world of politics, where fear for career prospects […]

The Legal Consequences of Suspending Employees

What are the legal consequences of suspending an employee? In particular, in what circumstances will an employer breach the implied term of trust and confidence? The issue has been considered by the Court of Appeal in the case of London Borough of Lambeth v Agoreyo. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Court has confirmed that an employer […]

BA fine signals ICO is taking no prisoners ahead of GDPR Phase 2

The ICO has said it intends to fine British Airways £183 million and the Marriott chain £99 million for data breaches each company had themselves notified to the Commissioner in compliance with the notification requirements under GDPR. Both organisations have the chance to appeal against the proposed penalty, but in the meantime what this indicates is that the ICO is […]

Symposium 2019: Wonderful Lives

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of year again… The gunnercooke Symposium is returning to Oxford on 11-12 September 2019 – and preparations are well under way to make it our greatest event yet! We’re inviting all our partners to join us for two action-packed days brimming with keynote speakers, workshops and insightful discussions to […]

How you can prevent your Deliveroo account from being hacked

The recent experience of a number of Deliveroo customers (especially in London, but elsewhere too) serves to illustrate the importance of customers ensuring that they use different passwords for their various platforms, devices and apps. This particular incident seems to have cost individual customers relatively little because the hackers have simply used the passwords to […]