Luke Hutchings

Partner - Employment law

Luke is a specialist employment lawyer with over 20 years experience.

He specialises in employment law and advises both employees and employers. He is praised for being a creative thinker and is able to solve problems that arise in the workplace such as TUPE, redundancy, and misconduct, and is particularly skilled at resolving disputes through mediation. He also deals with breaches of employee covenants, confidentiality claims and offers advice on business change and restructuring.

Luke is very experienced in taking cases to the Employment Tribunal if litigation is necessary.

Recent instructions and experience

• Employee group claim – Luke advised a group of forty employees who had not been consulted properly ahead of a large redundancy programme. A group claim was filed in the Employment Tribunal and the claim was later settled out of court. Compensation was recovered which totalled in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

• Defending disciplinary allegations – Luke was retained by a senior employee who was going through a stressful disciplinary process. Luke helped prepare the employee for investigation meetings and a disciplinary hearing. Rather than face a disciplinary sanction, the employer and the employee made an agreement under which the employee agreed to leave his position for an undisclosed sum.

• Review and compliance checking of company documents – Luke acted for a technology business and redrafted a number of documents including the whistleblowing and data protection policies in order to ensure the company was using the most up-to-date versions available and limit their exposure to legal claims.

• Advising on Settlement Agreement – Luke regularly advises senior employees, company officers, and shareholders on Settlement Agreements. These documents provide for an agreed severance package when an important employment relationship comes to an end, with the employee being compensated appropriately, and the employer being protected from future claims.

• Defending employee rights in the Employment Tribunal – Luke has been instructed on a number of very high value and newsworthy discrimination and whistleblowing claims. He has also recovered sums of more than £100,000.00 in backpay for employees who were paid wrongly under the National Minimum Wage regulations.

• Advice on post-termination restrictions – Luke has advised former employees how they can best start up new business that can compete lawfully against their former employers, even if the employee has entered into restraint of trade clauses. He has also advised employers on drafting restraint of trade clauses and threatened proceedings against former employees who have taken confidential material and client lists and are threatening unlawful competition against the business owners.

• Standing up for business against frivolous claims – Sometimes former employees are encouraged by others to make unwarranted claims in the Employment Tribunal. Luke can advise on tactics to prevent this costing too much, and using the Tribunal system to threaten costs against these claimants, forcing them to withdraw misconceived claims promptly and before too much management time and costs have been wasted.