Kate Emma Lewis

Partner & Head Of Employment

Department: Employment Law and HR

Related Services: Absence Management, Disciplinary Processes and Dismissal, Employment Contracts, Employment Discrimination, Employment Tribunals, Enforcement of Restrictive Covenants, Statutory Leave, Performance Management, Redundancy and Restructuring, Settlement Agreements, TBLF HR, TUPE Transfer.

Areas of Specialism: Human Resources, incorporating: Absence Management, Commercial HR Advice, Disciplinaries, Discrimination, Employment, Contracts – drafting and advice, Employment Relationship Management, Equal Pay, Grievances, Performance Management, Restructuring and Redundancy, Staff Handbooks – drafting and reviewing; Employment Issues on Insolvency - Automatic Dismissals, Redundancy and Restructure and TUPE; Settlement Agreements – drafting and advice; Tribunal Advice and Representation and TUPE.

Kate heads up the firm’s employment team. She advises on both contentious and non-contentious aspects.

She counsels businesses from SMEs to large international companies, including household names, on their HR issues. Kate is known for her practical and commercial advice and particularly enjoys finding workable solutions for her clients. She prides herself on her excellent client relationships and says that this helps her to properly understand her clients’ needs and enables her to work with them as an extension of their team.

When not advising on often complex HR issues, she also closely supports the firm’s Corporate Commercial and Insolvency teams. This is where Kate’s enjoyment of TUPE comes in handy! She advises clients on the TUPE process in Asset Purchases and upon Administration and redundancy in insolvency situations. She also reviews the employee provisions in the relevant Corporate Commercial contracts and advises on Settlement Agreements.

Kate conducts her own advocacy in the Employment Tribunal, meaning that she can represent a client in defending a claim, from start to finish. She has a high success rate in defending claims for her clients. In the Employment Tribunal, Kate has often successfully represented clients ranging from an SME to a national brewing and retailing company to an international logistics company.

Areas of Expertise:

• Absence Management;

• Commercial HR Advice;

• Disciplinaries;

• Discrimination;

• Employment Contracts – drafting and advice;

• Employment Relationship Management;

• Equal Pay;

• Grievances;

• Performance Management;

• Restructuring and redundancy;

• Settlement Agreements – drafting and advice;

• Staff Handbooks – drafting and reviewing;

• TBLF HR;

• Tribunal;

• TUPE.

Types of Clients:

Kate works for several clients in a variety of industry sectors, including:

• Education; and

• Local authorities and charities.

However, Kate prides herself on being an expert in:

• Manufacturing;

• Warehousing;

• Logistics and transport;

• Sales, retail and hospitality industries.

Making her an end-to-end specialist for those industry sectors.

Professional Membership & Accreditations:

Kate is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.

Contact Kate Emma Lewis

Senior Associate Solicitor