Employment and Immigration

Whether you’re an employee worrying about workplace wrangles, or a global business struggling to interpret immigration rules, our legal advisers will help you find solutions to your employment or immigration problems.

We deliver what you need, when and how you want it – whether that’s quick legal advice over the phone, working by your side on complex cases and litigation, or giving you in-house support if you need extra help when the pressure is on.

Key contact

Michael Stokes

I chose to specialise in employment law because it’s all about people. No two cases are ever the same, and the clients I work for vary hugely from local authorities to large employers in the private sector, like British Airways and Arriva. I also help growing businesses and charities, as well as individual claimants looking for fair treatment from their employers.

Our experience

Our 40-strong team offers specialist advice and support on everything from employment contracts and HR policies to settlement agreements, restructuring, TUPE and complex grievance and disciplinary processes. We have unrivalled expertise in discrimination issues, including gender pay, mental health and sexual harassment cases, as well as immigration experts who can help individuals with visa applications or employers hoping to bring employees to the UK.

Our accessible and friendly team includes solicitors, barristers, legal executives, HR consultants and trainers, with years of unsurpassed experience in handling complex and challenging employment law and immigration cases. We are really passionate about our jobs, and we care passionately about the people we help too.

Our clients

Our clients are hugely diverse in terms of what they do and what they need from us, but they all have one thing in common – the need for strong support, expert advice and empathy in crucial moments of decision.

We support private individuals in a variety of industries, ranging from senior executives to personalities in the public eye, such as actors and sports stars. We also work with employers in medium-sized and major national and international companies. Our experience lies in both the public and private sectors from local government, the NHS and education to manufacturing, aviation, business services and recruitment.

Future Workspaces from Harrison Clark Rickerbys

Future Workspaces – tackling the changing employment landscape

Employment in 2024 – it’s complex, it’s different, and it calls for a new approach.

Over the past five years, we have all seen irrevocable changes to the employment landscape. Brexit, Gen Z’s entry into the workplace, COVID-19, and the cost-of-living crisis have all had their part to play. And whilst some trends have come and gone, and some challenges left behind more impacts than others, many of the changes are here to stay, for you and your employees to navigate together.

Download the report
Take our future workspace report

The Future of Work Survey 2024

From burnout and stress issues, to tackling the UK skills gap and understanding whether AI will actually deliver an ROI for your business, we want to explore the future of work.

This survey is part of our ongoing mission to help UK employers in the new work frontier.

Take the survey

Recognition of our work

Investors in People

Investors in People

Recommended for Quality

Recommended for Quality

Legal updates and thought leadership

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Hear what our clients say about us

Paula‘s kindness means a lot to me, and all the support she gave me has not only cleared my name from a false allegation but also provided me with excellent advice on how to move forward, giving me the confidence to put it behind me. Please pass on my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Paula for her swift response and for always attentively listening to my thoughts and worries. I am very thankful to her for taking on my case.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Client Testimonial HR Dispute

I cannot thank Chris enough for the help he gave me. This was at a time in my life when I was at my lowest. I found myself in a devastating position, left feeling very alone and destroyed emotionally at the loss of a much-loved career, that I had worked so very hard for. From the outset Chris went above and beyond. He helped us through a myriad of issues and was unerring in his support from the outset. This really helped to take the pressure off me and my family at such a stressful and difficult time.

The thing that I felt made Chris really stand out is his caring nature. The empathy he shows is such an amazing quality and it really helped me to start getting back on my feet. Having someone fight my corner and believe in what I was saying, made me start to believe in myself again. He negotiated a substantial settlement, but what he did for me personally is priceless. Thank you so much for helping me gain my confidence and my life back.

Client Employment Issues

Catherine has a refreshing approach that is client-focused and very responsive. What differentiates her from other legal advisers is that her advice is enhanced with a deep knowledge and understanding of our sector and business.

Her advice and guidance is not delivered in the form of a dry legal ‘tome’ but provides an incisive point of view on a series of options, along with a realistic assessment of risk for each approach. Crucially, this also get to grips with the practical steps needed to put their advice into action.

Catherine and the team are friendly and supremely professional, providing pragmatic, astute legal advice and guidance. They translate complex legal matters into clear understandable language that can be used practically by non-lawyers.

Moira Foster-Fitzgerald Chief Group Services Officer and Designated Safeguarding Lead for South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Elizabeth is quite simply an outstanding employment lawyer.  From the outset her knowledge, expertise and guidance instilled confidence and trust, putting me completely at ease and transformed a very stressful employment situation into a very manageable one.

She is a great listener, very easy to talk to, super patient & empathetic with an innate ability to quickly pinpoint successful strategies to secure resolution.

I cannot thank her enough for all her efforts in helping me successfully resolve my employment situation

Client Unfair dismissal

Catherine and her colleagues have become trusted advisors who are without fail highly responsive, supportive and most importantly, proactive.

They keep pace with the fast-moving needs of the college, and offer a pragmatic, cost-effective service which is results-focused. Their understanding of the needs of our organisation is unparalleled, and the team’s expertise in the FE sector instils absolute confidence. They are focused on helping us to achieve our business objectives and are on hand to deliver skilled advice whenever a need arises.

Andrea Greer Deputy Principal of Weston College

I was in shock and extremely stressed and upset given the out-of-the-blue bombshell that had been dropped on me by my employer of ten years. Heidi managed to calm me down and put me at ease with her kind words and obvious knowledge of the legal position; she was friendly, knowledgeable and was able to explain my options in a clear way.

Successful settlement package negotiated thanks to Employment and Immigration Associate’s advice

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the sincere guidance and extremely professional support we received from the team.

The whole team led us through a step by step approach to make the whole process very smooth and eventually successful.

A big thank you to Joanna Safadi and Jamie and each and everyone in your team at HCR Law.

New biometric residence card acquired for client thanks to Employment and Immigration Associate’s expertise

Catherine Mitchell has been our principal employment law partner since 2009 and worked exclusively with us since 2016. Over the years we have developed a very strong working relationship with her built upon mutual trust.

Catherine has made it her priority to fully understand Direct Wines and Laithwaites, our culture and preferred ways of working to provide a highly professional service across all elements of employment law. She is pragmatic, responsive, measured and very driven to deliver the results we expect as a client.

She possesses excellent interpersonal skills and provides high levels of confidence throughout our business. Direct Wines has complete trust in Catherine’s professional abilities and highly recommend her without hesitation.

Matt Wayne, Group HR Director Direct Wines, trading as Laithwaites

You are on fire! Thank you so much.

Client Employment Tribunal

The team has established a formidable Welsh presence within a strikingly short space of time.

Legal 500 2024 – Employment

HCR is a large company which offers a very good personalised service to its clients. Communication is very good and the company has a very broad-range of specialists in all areas of law.

Legal 500 2024 – Employment

In my experience, the team provides exactly what a client requires in terms of expertise, breadth, pragmatism, speed of action and results.

Legal 500 2024 – Employment

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