Ms. Nicola Whiteley, partner in the London office, is Head of the Orrick London Employment Team.

Ms. Whiteley specialises in all aspects of employment law, both contentious and non-contentious, including “surgery-style” counseling, tribunal cases and the employment aspects of corporate transactions.  Ms Whiteley’s areas of work include the following.

• Drafting and advising on employment, secondment and consultancy documentation, policies and procedures and staff handbooks.
• Drafting, advising on, and enforcing confidentiality obligations and other restrictive covenants, including cross-border jurisdiction issues.
• Advising on the prevention of and defending wrongful and unfair dismissal and breach of contract claims.
• Advising on the application and implications of TUPE (The Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 in relation to the acquisition or disposal of a business, part of a business, transfer of a lease, contract tenders and outsourcing exercises, including harmonisation of terms and conditions, relocation, redundancies and unfair dismissal claims arising from the TUPE transfer.
• Advising on and executing executive and general recruitment and termination.
• Advising on whistle-blowing procedures and defending claims.
• Advising on the prevention of and defending claims under discrimination and equal pay legislation and advising on maternity and other parental and family friendly rights.
• Advising on European and National works councils and other consultation issues.
• Advising on, coordinating and defending claims arising from local and transnational restructuring exercises and redundancies (collective and individual), plant closures and relocations.

Specific representative recent transactions include the following.

• Advised and represented a leading financial institution in relation to grievance and disciplinary proceedings involving whistleblowing, personal injury and discrimination allegations and successfully avoiding any resulting claim.
• Defended an international software company against a multi-strand discrimination, unfair dismissal and whistleblowing claim by a vexatious litigant.
• Advised a leading financial institution in relation to employee matters on two parent and local level mergers with other leaders in the field, including implementing a complete harmonisation of terms and conditions by way of dismissal and re-engagement of all the employees and ongoing advice on issues relating to a proposed takeover, as well as general HR and employment queries, a related management buy-out of part of the business and a number of high value bonus and deferred compensation cases.
• Represented a leading global financial services company in a concurrent U.K. High Court and U.S. District Court action (including anti-suit injunction) arising from breach of restrictive covenants and consequent forfeiture of restricted stock by a senior international executive.
• Coordinating and advising on all the cross-border employment aspects of a global diligence exercise and bid for the acquisition of part of a leading consumer goods business by another leading multinational client.

Ms. Whiteley is recognised in the Employment category of the 2011 edition of the Legal 500, UK, with clients praising her as “a great communicator.”

Before joining the firm, Ms. Whiteley was a senior associate in the London employment team of Jones Day.

Admitted in

• England and Wales

Memberships

• Law Society of England and Wales
• Employment Lawyer’s Association
• American Bar Association
• International Bar Association

Publications

• New Grounds for Unlawful Discrimination Highlighted
• How to cope when your top team resigns
• You and Your Temp Secretary: Maybe not so Temporary – Association Foreign Banks Newsletter
• Cross-border enforcement of post-employment restrictions and protection of trade secrets – AFB Newsletter article

Speeches & Programs

• Ms. Whiteley regularly presents seminars and client training exercises on a range of employment-related topics, including TUPE, contracts, unfair dismissal, working time, enforcement of cross-border restrictive covenants and trade secrets, financial services remuneration practices, employment status, team moves, redundancy practice and procedure, works councils and other consultation issues, discrimination and data protection.