Contracts, Policies and Handbook Solicitors
We protect your organisation with expertly drafted employment documents
Most employers know that they are required to provide employees with a written statement of the details of their employment. Not all will know exactly what must, by law, be included in such statements. In the case of senior employees, a detailed employment contract is a valuable tool in protecting your business.
Our team of specialist employment solicitors take time to understand your business so that the recommendations we make are practical and relevant for your business as well as being legally compliant.
Our approach is simple. By rigorous drafting of documents and attention to detail, we seek to ensure that your business’s exposure to risk is effectively managed in all circumstances. This includes situations such as where an employee leaves the business, you reorganise the business or a dispute arises with an employee.
Looking for all of the essential employment documents your business needs? Our Employment Essentials packs include all the key documents you need to get started at an attractive fixed price.
Get the right employment contracts and policies in place for your organisation
We work with a wide variety of businesses, large and small, across multiple industries on issues including:
- Drafting employment contracts for new hires and existing employees
- Preparing service agreements for directors
- Restrictive covenants
- Reviewing and updating terms and conditions of employment in light of changes to employment law
- Reviewing employee policies and handbooks to ensure they remain fair, lawful and fit-for-purpose
- Advising on how up-coming changes to employment law will impact business operations and policies
Work with industry-leading employment lawyers
Our employment lawyers consistently appear in the directories of leading practitioners and are ranked by the leading client guide, The Legal 500. This provides strong assurance that we offer an exceptional service.
The team is led by Joint Senior Partner Richard Gvero, who is closely supported by Associate Solicitor Miranda Mulligan. Both Richard and Miranda are individually recommended by The Legal 500.
Miranda and Richard are members of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA), further emphasising their specialist expertise. Richard and Miranda are also accredited mediators.
Speak to our employment experts today
To discuss your requirements with our proactive, specialist solicitors, please get in touch.
Our employment contracts and employee policies services
Drafting employment contracts
At Longmores Solicitors, we understand that your employment contracts govern the success of your business and shape the working relationships between you and your staff members. Our employment solicitors have plenty of experience in guiding business leaders to draft the perfect contracts to comply with employment law and reflect their commercial needs.
With our legal expertise, you can minimise the chance of employees challenging their employment contracts. The type of contract that you give your staff members affects your employment and tax responsibilities. Naturally, legal guidance here is imperative.
We can advise you on the different types of employment contracts, including:
- Part-time and full-time contracts for junior and senior staff
- Terms for contractors, freelancers and consultants
- Fixed-term contracts
Preparing service agreements for directors
Directors are an integral part of any company. It is important that their responsibilities and obligations are clearly stated in writing. Our employment solicitors can support you to draft service agreements that outline the working terms of your company directors.
With a watertight director’s service agreement, you can guide the terms of the working relationship, helping you to avoid disputes later on. Our employment lawyers have extensive experience drafting directors’ service agreements for companies in various sectors.
Restrictive covenants
A restrictive covenant refers to a clause or clauses drafted into a service agreement or an employment contract. The clauses work to set restrictions on the competitive actions of the employee during and after their employment. Our employee contracts and policies lawyers can assist you to create restrictive covenants to protect your business interests.
We can help you to draft restrictive covenants to serve various purposes, including:
- Non-poaching of staff
- Non-competition
- Non solicitation of clients/customers
Employee policy
When you are running a business, you will need transparent employee policies. This ensures that your staff members know your expectations and that you are legally protected in various scenarios that may occur.
Our solicitors can support you to draft different types of employee policy, including:
Disciplinary and grievance policies and procedures
It is crucial that your business has clear disciplinary policies. This makes sure your staff understand the standard of conduct required and are aware of the behaviours that will result in disciplinary action. Equally, if an employee has a problem, they must have the right to have the issue addressed through a legally compliant grievance procedure.
Health and safety policy
By law, all businesses must have a health and safety policy. This employee policy should set out all relevant health and safety protocols for your business. The document should address the company’s commitment to health and safety, and state how the business will ensure that standards are maintained.
Equal opportunities policy
Businesses are advised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to have a clear staff policy for equal opportunities. While these policies are not a legal requirement, having an equal opportunities policy demonstrates that the employer is dedicated to promoting equality and avoiding discrimination in the workplace.
Sickness absence policy
To ensure that sickness and absence are correctly handled, every employer needs a straightforward sickness and absence policy. Our specialist solicitors at Longmores can help you to establish clear policies, so that both employees and employers clearly understand how sickness and absence will be dealt with.
Social media and data protection
Drafting a social media policy can help businesses to ensure that their staff understand professional social media best practices. In many cases, having a staff policy for social media can help to protect the company reputation.
Social media is often used as a workplace tool and so employers need such policies in place to ensure that employees represent them adequately online. These employee policies are particularly important for staff members who hold accounts that are connected to their workplace roles.
Data protection policies are vital for legal compliance, which means employers must ensure that they inform employees about any staff data collection and how this data will be processed.
Employee handbook advice
Employee handbooks are the easiest way to ensure that all staff members comprehend and are made aware of employee policies. Our employment law solicitors at Longmores can assist businesses to create appropriate employee handbooks, reflecting the full details of their staff policies.
As well as policies, employee handbooks may detail company perks, dress codes and the vision and values of the company. They can thus be very helpful in defining your organisation’s culture.
Legal advice on changes to employment law
Our expert team of solicitors can support businesses to keep up to date with the latest employment laws and obligations. Over time, employment laws tend to change, but rest assured, we have plenty of experience in supporting employers to review and amend their employee policies and contracts.
Our legal advice on employment law covers many different areas, including:
- Data protection and workplace privacy
- Employment law in recruitment procedures
- Employment terms and conditions
- Equal pay
- Disputes based on discrimination, working conditions or contract disputes
- Employment tribunals
- Redundancy legal advice
Our fees
The value of good legal advice when creating employment contracts, policies and employee handbooks cannot be overstated. The right employment law advice can save you a lot of hassle and additional costs later on, so we strongly recommend speaking to our experts at the earliest opportunity.
We offer complete transparency with our fees, so you know exactly what your costs will be.
To find out more about the fees, our employment law services and to request a cost estimate, please get in touch.
You can also get all of the key employment documents your business needs for a fixed price with our Employment Essentials pack.
Speak to our employment experts today
To discuss your requirements regarding employment contracts and policies with our specialist solicitors, please get in touch.
