Joan Pettingill

Expertise

Joan helps employers get employment law right.

She helps solve people problems.

Joan is a highly experienced expert in all areas of employment law.

She helps with staff risk management, staff attraction, lateral hires, team moves, engagement, accelerating and managing performance, and dismissals.

Joan has a high level of experience successfully defending employment tribunals.  She often advises ‘behind the scene’ on issues as they arise and need careful prompt management to help prevent tribunals arising at all.

Joan is a trusted adviser for many strategic projects such as corporate sales, acquisitions and MBOs working closely with corporate teams.

She has a commercial no-nonsense approach to achieving clients’ objectives whilst keeping them on the right side of employment laws.

Joan is also experienced in upgrading employment contracts and policies, changing job descriptions, contract terms, or changing working practices. She is very experienced in all kinds of staff change management in particular where there are TUPE issues on business transfers or service provision changes.  Joan has experience upgrading employment contract terms and conditions, policies and procedures including collective consultation and negotiations with trade unions all the way through to dealing with trade union recognition and collective bargaining.

She also carries out complex independent investigations.  Joan advises regulatory decision makers on process as well as where employment law cuts across sensitive issues such as safeguarding for high profile organisations.

Joan Advises

• SMEs through to plcs
• Charities & not for profits
• Care homes and healthcare businesses

Experience Highlights

• Advising on the relocation of a £20M manufacturing facility to the far east advising on all TUPE consultations, role reorganisations, contract variations, interview processes, and exit arrangements.
• Successfully defending multiple union-backed employment tribunal claims for wages underpayments for an international engineering company.
• Successfully advising a national retailer on trade union recognition issues of competing trade unions following a merger.
• Advising a University in respect of trade union recognition negotiations as well as changes to contracts of employment and working practices after they had restructured their business units.
• On a service provision change, negotiating that TUPE did not apply thus releasing an engineering company from £several-millions of potential employee costs that they would otherwise have inherited.
• Investigation of £multi-million theft by an employee resulting in the recovery of funds and conviction.
• House of Lords case changing the law to allow children abused by care home managers to claim financial compensation.

Career History

Previous Law Firms

• Wake Smith Solicitors (Director & Head of Employment & HR Services 2020–21)
• Lupton Fawcett LLP (Partner, Employment Law Team 2014–20)
• HLW Keeble Hawson LLP (now Knights plc) (Partner, Employment Law Team 2007–14)
• Gordons (Solicitor 2001–07)

Memberships

• Employment Lawyers Association

Education

• Northumbria University (LLB Law (Hons))
• Legal Practice Course

Other

• ILM trainer
• ILM7 Executive Coach & Mentor
• Hub leader: gunnercooke iNSPIRE Yorkshire charity hub
• Chair: C-Suite Conversations executive peer group.

An experienced public speaker, Joan also frequently delivers training in employment law and is also an ILM7 executive coach.  Joan is a Legal 500 named expert in employment law.