Clifford Chance

The Clifford Chance global employment team advises on a wide range of corporate clients and financial institutions on a range of complex employment issues including litigation and dispute resolution, works councils and unions and the employment aspects of all types of corporate transactions. We not only cover the traditional areas of employment law that many firms focus on, but also more specialist areas that are increasingly relevant in the current financial climate, such as remuneration reform, regulatory investigations and corporate governance.

We offer an established international network of 100+ specialist employment lawyers, ensuring we provide 24 hour commercial advice. This international network represents one of the largest global employment practices amongst law firms. We provide strategic, confidential advice to help our clients deliver effective business solutions to their internal stakeholders.

We are completely integrated with our Corporate, Finance, Litigation and Real Estate practices, regularly working alongside our colleagues as part of larger transaction teams.

We provide expert, commercial advice covering a wide range of employment law issues including:

• Advisory – recruitment and hiring, drafting and negotiating employment contracts, agency and contractor arrangements, secondments, employee relations, works councils and unions, flexible working, diversity and equality, hours and pay, corporate governance, boardroom and senior executive issues, grievance handling, whistle-blowing and disciplinary issues
  
• Transactional – employment aspects of mergers, acquisitions, outsourcings, relocations and restructurings with extensive experience in the management of multi-jurisdictional projects. In countries where we do not have an office, we are experienced in co-ordinating and managing advice from locally qualified employment experts
  
• Litigation – extensive experience in contentious matters and dispute resolution including litigation, arbitration and mediation of employee claims including in respect of whistle-blowing, discrimination and equality, bonus disputes, protection of confidential information and restrictive covenants
• Remuneration reform – working in conjunction with Clifford Chance's banking regulatory practice, we advise on remuneration reform, compliance with the PRA/FCA Remuneration Code, and the impact of the "bonus cap" (CRD IV), AIFMD and UCITS V
• Workplace investigations and culture reviews – advice in complex employment investigations and reviews (often with a regulatory element), which can span multiple jurisdictions and often involve employee misconduct and / or whistle-blowing claims). These may be incident specific or on a proactive basis.
• Corporate governance – boardroom diversity, remuneration governance, non-executive arrangements, senior manager regimes, director contracts
• Immigration – business immigration advice in key European jurisdictions
• Employee Incentives & Pensions – employee share and incentive plans, innovative remuneration structures, pensions and employee tax, ERISA, share plans and stock options

"They are very responsive and reactive. We can reach them when there is an emergency, and their work is precise and rigorous. I really enjoy their services, I use them mainly for extra-tricky issues and when I am facing something very difficult that requires their expertise." "They do excellent work, including in technical cases."

Chambers Europe 2023: Employment – France

"They take the lead and drive the project forward in a proactive way. They have great resources, expertise and experience led strongly at a partner level. They have an excellent team able to handle the most complex employment law and incentives matters."

Chambers Global 2023: Employment - UK