Interview with Richard Brown, Partner in Employment Law at Nabarro

What’s the first thing you do when you get into the office?

Grab a cup of coffee!

How do you handle and organise/prioritise your workload?

This very much depends upon what matters we are working on and which clients have employment issues – this changes on a daily basis. The very nature of the employment problems our clients may have is that they need to be advised very quickly. This often means advising a client as a problem arises this may be just before or just after (or even during) a meeting with an employee.

What sort of daily responsibilities does a partner have in employment law? How does it differ from an associate role?

As a partner I generally supervise the work of the team and my involvement tends to concentrate on strategy and approach a client may take to a particular employment issue.

Generally I take a lead in shaping the strategy of the team and identifying the marketing objectives for example, seminar programs, brochures, and specific marketing events aimed at HR professionals and in-house legal counsel.

Can you give us an idea of the sort of projects you manage from day to day? Which aspect of employment law is dealt with most frequently by Nabarro?

For me, the big attraction of employment law is that you advise on a variety of different problems these might be contentious or non-contentious issues. For example, this week I have been representing a client in the employment tribunal defending a claim of unfair dismissal, race discrimination whistleblowing. I have also been advising a client in relation to a corporate transaction and whether employees will transfer with the sale of a part of a business.

What sort of clients do you generally deal with on a day-to-day basis?

We deal with a variety of clients. We tend to work on a “sector” basis therefore our clients come from the real estate, financial services, and technology sectors. We generally only act for companies rather than individuals.