Carl Atkinson

Expertise

Carl is an employment and privacy partner with extensive experience across a wide spectrum of contentious and non-contentious commercial and employment project and policy work. He is best known for his ability to understand a client’s requirements and then explain how it can be delivered.

Carl has over 23 years of post-qualification experience (nine years of which has included data protection work), including many years of in house experience as Senior Employment Lawyer and Data Controller at Northern Foods plc – subsequently acquired by 2 Sisters Foods Group – and Senior Employment Lawyer at Asda Stores Ltd. While in these positions, Carl managed Data Protection Issues for the business while supervised paralegal support staff who dealt with those issues (Asda).

Since returning to private practice, Carl has advised many businesses, public sector organisations and individuals in relation to various data protection issues, most recently advising on several GDPR compliance programmes.  His recent experience includes membership of the gunnercooke team which is advising a large international financial services organisation upon GDPR compliance across its international portfolio of Group businesses.  This project has been running for ten months and has included extensive reviews of privacy documentation including the privacy statements used by the different Group businesses across the international footprint of the Group.  Carl has also advised “The School of Life”, an international coaching organisation, in relation to GDPR compliance across their international businesses structure.

Carl Advises

• Large corporates with significant head-counts
• HR Directors
• Senior Executives

Experience Highlights

• Corporate employment support to 9 group companies located throughout the UK and Eire which have a combined total employee headcount in excess of 18,000 and a turnover of £2bn.
• Restructuring projects and TUPE issues relating to M&A projects including those relating to Northern Foods acquisition by Boparan Holdings Ltd.
• TUPE transfer of 3,500 employees following the acquisition of Netto Stores UK Ltd by Asda Stores Ltd.
• Discrete projects such as a redundancy program upon a site closure involving the loss of over 700 jobs and collective consultation with the relevant Union.
• Advice in relation to a Joint Venture project to take over a major supply contract which involved a potential TUPE transfer of over 700 employees.
• Review and preparation of HR policies/procedures as required and dealing with “routine” employment law queries from HR officers, managers, and Directors (this includes frequent performance management issues and the preparation of compromise agreements up to Senior Executive level.
• Provision of internal training/ marketing to the HR Community, including the provision of “legal update” training to HR Managers and Officers.

Publications

Articles

• Implementation of EU Works Council’s Regulations in the UK
• Tesco woes continue as investors line up to sue their own business

Webinars

• Five costly mistakes made by employers when dealing with requests for reasonable adjustments and how to avoid them
• Disability discrimination
• How will GDPR impact your HR practice

Career History

Previous Law Firms

• Partner, Head of Employment – Chartbridge Solicitors LLP
• Solicitor – Davies Arnold Cooper Solicitors

Previous Businesses

• Senior Employment Lawyer – 2 Sisters Food Group / Northern Foods plc
• Senior Employment Lawyer – Asda Stores Ltd

Education

• Solicitor (Admitted 1994)
• Called to the Bar (1991)