External Forces and Trends
Look Back / Look Forward Legal Review
DIGITAL ONLY MEETING
This event will provide a round-up of the key employment and benefits legal developments from 2023 in the UK and internationally and what to expect in 2024 covering:
- Home or Away? While many countries have introduced laws supporting remote and flexible working, employers have also hardened their enforcement of mandatory office attendance policies and many are facing challenges as they go into 2024
- Time’s Up – A whistle-stop tour of the latest key cases and new legislation on working time, new family leave rights, the right to disconnect, flexible working rights and how employers are implementing these
- Discrimination trends – A round-up of hot topics in discrimination law including clashes of ‘protected rights’, ‘reverse discrimination’ cases and menopause-related issues
- ESG focus – Shining a spotlight on the Netherlands where there have been a number of ESG related legal developments affecting pensions and wider benefits and contrasting this with pension and reward related ESG issue in other countries
- Dead or alive? 2023 has seen initiatives in both the US and UK to outlaw or restrict non-compete and other post-termination restrictions. What are the key legal developments and should employers give-up on restrictive covenants going into 2024?
The event is open to all members but participation is most appropriate for those accountable for keeping the member team informed and up to date on legal risk and its potential impact on Performance and Reward strategies, including reporting requirements.
This session will be recorded and made available to members as a digital resource.
Paul Fontes
Partner at Eversheds Sutherlands Employment, Labour and Pensions Group
Paul is a partner in Eversheds Sutherland’s Employment, Labour and Pensions Group and head of the London employment team. Paul advises on the whole range of employment matters with particular experience of advising employers on executive employment matters including incentive arrangements, terms of appointment and severance packages. His clients include a number of the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250.
He regularly defends some of the UK’s largest employers against high value and commercially sensitive discrimination and whistleblowing claims in the Employment Tribunals as well as acting on claims in the High Court concerning breaches of fiduciary duties, confidentiality and post-termination restrictions. In addition, Paul regularly advises on the employment law aspects of corporate transactions and on multi-jurisdictional employment projects.
Paul’s clients come from a range of sectors including energy, real estate and TMT. He has particular experience in advising clients in the financial services industry. He advises a number of retail and investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, brokers and other City institutions on issues such as the Senior Managers and Certification Regime and compliance with the regulators’ remuneration codes. He is the editor of The Employment Practitioner’s Guide to Financial Institutions (published by Bloomsbury in 2019), the leading textbook on how the regulatory regime in financial services impacts on the management of HR issues in the sector. Paul has been recognised as a leading individual for many years by Chambers which describes Paul as “very hard to beat and incredibly user friendly” and “an excellent employment lawyer”.
