We’re glad to see the back of the Covid-19 pandemic. We’ve continued to provide an exceptional service to our clients whilst supporting the communities in which we work and live. Here’s our 2022 highlights.
We’ve continued to help our clients navigate though UK employment law. Whilst doing so, we’ve maintained our excellent independent rankings in the UK Legal 500, our top ranking as ‘ThreeBestRated’ for employment law in Newport and we continue to consistently rank in the top 3 in Google Voice Searches for the top employment lawyers in Newport.
Since our launch, we’ve made employment law work for 436 clients in England and Wales, plus one in France and one in the BVI. Our clients are a mix of employers, employees and consultants/independent contractors.
2,676 followers on Twitter
We continue to put our clients at the heart of everything we do. We’ve been delighted with the great client feedback received and with the kindness shown by so many. We have 99 Google Reviews, 97 of which are 5*.
198 likes on Facebook, 205 followers
We’ve successfully represented clients in a variety of Employment Tribunal cases and have advised across a wide range of matters including:
Employer clients:
advising on restructures/redundancies;
successfully defending multiple claims of unfair/constructive/wrongful dismissal, disability/race/sex discrimination, health & safety/whistleblowing detriment and breach of contract;
advising on protective measures against executives in breach of restrictive covenants;
drafting and negotiating different types of employment contracts;
advising on issues arising from refusals of flexible working requests;
advising on complex grievances;
drafting appropriate HR policies and procedures/staff handbooks for multiple businesses;
advising on complex whistleblowing matters;
advising on the employment aspects of mergers, acquisitions and outsourcings.
Employee clients:
advising on and negotiating improvements to numerous settlement agreements;
defending executives facing High Court injunctions for alleged breach of restrictive covenants; negotiated substantial settlement packages;
advising on pregnancy and maternity and sex discrimination from managers at a recruitment company;
advising departing employees on challenging/getting around various restrictive covenants;
advising in relation to disciplinary and grievance hearings;
advising whistleblowers and negotiating severance packages;
advising on redundancy situations, negotiating improvements to severance packages;
presenting ET1/Claims and managing claims for unfair and wrongful dismissal (mainly sham/unfair redundancies, trumped up misconduct/underperformance allegations);
defending those falsely accused of sexual harassment, negotiating severance packages;
advising those facing attempted clawback of training costs and salary overpayments.
Slate Consult
Our specialist consultancy, Slate Consult, continues to provide employers with cost-effective access to expert employment law advice as well as HR, Health, Safety & Environmental services to ensure they are legally compliant.
Wellbeing
At Slate Legal, wellbeing continues to be synonymous with water sports! Our ‘Time on Water’ KPI was affected by water shortages in Llandegfedd reservoir so we made up for it by taking to the sea whenever and wherever possible! We tried wing-foiling at Dale, Pembrokeshire and liked it. We also crewed in multiple sailing races organised by Cardiff Bay Yacht Club, on Tonto in Cardiff Bay and on Silverback out on the Bristol Channel. We are co-sponsors of Silverback, which won the Frostbite 2022 IRC race tournament. Our Managing Partner also tested his sailing skills in warmer climes, helming a 42’ cat across the Saronic Gulf from Athens in August - crossing major shipping lanes - and lives to tell the tale!
Community investment
Each year we give something back to our local community through a variety of initiatives.
For the seventh year running, we took part in national pro bono week and spent 7 November 2022 providing employment law advice to employees and micro businesses across Wales and England on a pro bono basis. This is in addition to a substantial amount of pro bono work carried out on a monthly basis over the rest of the year.
We’ve provided financial support to our Charity of the Year 2022, The Jacob Abraham Foundation, based in Cardiff. They help young people suffering from anxiety and depression and aim to raise awareness of mental health and suicide.
We volunteered our time at the Tesco Food Collection at Tesco Extra, Cardiff Road on 3 December to help families and individuals facing hardship this winter. All food collected went to Newport food bank for distribution to where it is most needed. We were amazed at the generosity of the Newport folk we met who donated items so generously - we filled 3 large trollies in just 2 hours!
Environment
Since our launch on 1 January 2016, we’ve strived to minimise our carbon footprint. We made the SME Climate Commitment in September 2021 to halve emissions before 2030 and achieve net zero before 2050. We are well on our way to meeting this goal several years early.
Responsible Business Practices
We’ve always taken our Corporate Social Responsiblity seriously and were one of the first law firms in Wales to receive accreditation to the Good Business Charter. This aims to raise the bar on business practices across 10 areas: real living wage, fairer hours and contracts, employee well-being, employee representation, diversity and inclusion, environmental responsibility, paying fair tax, commitment to customers, ethical sourcing and prompt payment. We remain an active member along with others including: Deloitte, Capita, CBI, TSB, IOD, St.James’s Place, Aviva, Eversheds Sutherland and Amnesty International.
We love what we do and would be happy to talk to you about how we can make employment law work for you in 2023. Call us on 07956 085635, email us at info@slatelegal.co.uk or click here and complete our enquiry form and we'll get back to you asap.
That’s it from us for 2022. We hope 2023 is a Happy New Year for you.