For UHNWs and top-level executives, employment disputes are rarely just about money; more often they concern confidentiality, reputation and wider business ramifications. The right adviser is crucial — easing pressures and guiding clients through everything from contract negotiations to contentious departures.
Our selection of the best employment lawyers highlights experts known not only for their legal acumen but also for their tact and judgement. These are the names UHNW individuals turn to when an issue needs to be resolved swiftly, efficiently and with discretion.
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Related
- The best employment lawyers: the complete list
- Methodology: how we choose our recommendations
- The best employment lawyers: some names to know
- Contact us
The best employment lawyers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Methodology: how we choose our recommendations
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to the Spear's 500: Everything you need to know]
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Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best employment lawyers: some names to know
Simon Gorham
- Focus: Sensitive and high-stakes matters
- Position: Partner, head of employment
- Firm: Boodle Hatfield
- Rank: Top Recommended
Simon Gorham is head of employment law at Boodle Hatfield. Personable and clear in his explanations, he is regarded as one of the leaders in his field.
Gorham primarily assists C-suite executives and senior professionals within private and listed companies, as well as hedge funds, major banks and private equity houses. His cases often have an international element – involving the Middle East and Hong Kong in particular – and are ‘high stakes, high value and high reputational impact’.
Read Simon Gorham’s full profile on Spears500.com
David Smellie
- Focus: Hedge funds, executives and high-profile clients
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Farrer & Co
- Rank: Top Recommended
CEOs of listed companies, private equity investors and high-profile individuals facing interest from the press seek Farrer partner David Smellie’s wealth of expertise in complex employment-related matters.
Smellie advises on the entire employment life cycle, from contracts and misconduct allegations to exit agreements and renumeration; he has particular expertise in the latter. It is not unusual for his clients to have trusteeships at schools, and Smellie provides safeguarding advice for educational institutions that are going through a crisis.
He says clients appreciate not just his legal sharpness and leading insight, but also his level-headedness during times of crisis. ‘If someone has done something wrong or if someone is in a tricky situation, the worst thing you can do is give them false hope,’ he tells Spear’s.
Read David Smellie’s full profile on Spears500.com
Corinne Aldridge
- Focus: Discrimination cases
- Position: Partner, head of employment law
- Firm: Kingsley Napley
- Rank: Top Recommended
Corrine Aldridge is head of Kingsley Napley’s dynamic employment team, advising a diverse range of clients, including employers and employees from the financial and professional services sectors, and family offices.
Aldridge is equipped to advise on the full ambit of employment-related issues, from contracts and exit strategies to investigations and misconduct allegations, with a particular specialism in equal opportunities matters
Read Corinne Aldridge’s full profile on Spears500.com
Helen Sherborne
- Focus: Contracts, terminations, discrimination, harassment
- Position: Consultant solicitor
- Firm: Keystone Law
- Rank: Top Recommended
Helen Sherborne is one of Keystone Law’s most accomplished employment lawyers, with over 30 years of experience acting for high-profile senior and board level executives.
Executives at Amazon, Spotify and JP Morgan have all sought her expertise on contentious and non-contentious matters. Sherborne also has a strong reputation for her work in the media industry, which has seen her act on behalf of high-profile individuals at the BBC and other outlets.
Read Helen Sherborne’s full profile on Spears500.com
Chris Weaver
- Focus: Contracts, terminations, discrimination, harassment
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Payne Hicks Beach
- Rank: Recommended
Chris Weaver has a long track record in advising senior executives, UHNWs, celebrities and private offices on a range of employment issues, from discrimination and whistleblowing claims to reviewing contracts for household staff, company restructuring and people moves.
Many of his clients’ needs involve an international element, and the Payne Hicks Beach partner regularly draws upon the firm’s deep expertise across other disciplines, including the reputation management, regulatory and immigration practices, to find practical and inventive solutions.
Read Chris Weaver’s full profile on Spears500.com
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