Event Information

John has over 25 years’ experience in employment law and is noted as being a strategic thinker and leader in his field as well as being a practical hands-on lawyer. 

He is one of the leading lawyers in the UK with a national and international reputation. 

John is regarded as the leading expert in the UK on Transfer of Undertakings and he also has an international reputation in that field. 

He is variously described as the "TUPE guru", the "king of TUPE" and "Mr TUPE".  As well as being a writer and commentator on transfers, he advises the public, private and third sectors on the subject.  This includes wide experience in mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, franchising and complex restructuring. 

He has extensive expertise in all areas of employment law including redundancies and restructuring, information and consultation, discrimination and high level executive termination of employment. 

An all-round employment law adviser, he is an editor of Harvey on Industrial Relations and Employment Law, the practitioner's "bible". 

An expert in employee engagement, he is a member of the Advisory Council of the Involvement and Participation Association.

Sue is a partner within our charities and social economy team at Wrigleys

Sue advises charities and other not for profit, voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises on all aspects of employment law including strategic issues involving TUPE and restructuring.

Sue has experience of advising on severance packages and on senior executive service agreements. She also represents employers throughout the Employment Tribunal process.

She manages Wrigleys HR Response, our telephone and email employment law helpline for charities including academies and independent schools.

Jon Dews has 35+ years in employment & training, HR, industrial relations, enterprise and business development, latterly with Acas as a Senior Adviser, before setting up his own business earlier this year. He has a particular interest and skills in mediation, dispute & conflict resolution and disciplinary investigations, as well as facilitation and consensus building. He has worked with employers from SMEs to FTSE100 companies in areas such as solving disputes, TUPE processes, redundancy & change management, employment contracts and policies.

In his spare time, Jon enjoys rugby, racquet-ball and tennis, renovating a pile of rocks in Normandy and exploring the delights of SW Turkey.

Wendy has been the Director for the North of England since April 2017 and is responsible for leading the delivery of Acas Services across the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber.  Areas of responsibility cover Dispute Resolution Services (individual and collective), Advisory and Training on good practice in the workplace and Helpline services for both employers and employees.

Wendy was previously the North East and Scotland Area director for Acas from 2006 to 2017.  She joined Acas as an Individual Conciliator helping resolve employment tribunal cases and also worked extensively as a Collective Conciliator, working on disputes between employers and groups of workers and Trade unions.  She has worked as a Senior Adviser for Acas working on Business support and solutions relating to the employment relationship. Wendy was the Acas national lead in the Equal Pay crisis which affected all Local Authorities across the country.

Shane is a specialist employment law practitioner who provides a quality of service based on over twenty years’ experience in the field of employment law.

The depth of Shane’s experience encompasses all areas of employment law issues and he possesses particular expertise in conducting lengthy hearings of complexity in the area of discrimination.

He is highly regarded in his field and is sought after for his precision and assertive presence in tribunal. He is attentive to the client’s needs and provides a balanced assessment of merits of a case.

Shane’s client base includes private sector respondents and public employers. Shane has a depth of experience in representing claimants from all different professional and trade union backgrounds.

He has significant experience of receiving instructions in the EAT having done both pro bono and privately funded appeals.

Shane regularly gives lectures and seminars on current areas of development in the employment law. He has also conducted training sessions for other lawyers for the ELA.

Shane is a regular contributor of articles to the ELA Briefing.

Alacoque is a partner in our charities and social economy team.

Alacoque specialises in working with third sector and education sector clients on all aspects of employment law. She advises on complex employee relations issues, employment status, policies and procedures, employment contracts, settlement agreements and the defence of tribunal claims, including holiday pay, discrimination, whistle-blowing and trade union related claims. Alacoque also advises on redundancy and restructure projects and on TUPE transfers, including the requirements of collective consultation.

She has a particular interest in equality law and has considerable experience of the realities of managing staff and resources within the education and public sectors.

Alacoque edits Wrigleys’ monthly Employment Law Bulletin and regularly speaks on employment law and HR topics.

Chris has over 25 years' experience of advising charities and social enterprises and leads the employment team at Wrigleys

Chris is a member of the Charity Law Association, Education Law Association and the Employment Lawyers Association. 

Chris advises on a wide range of issues including governance, contracts, data protection and employment matters. His particular work at present focuses on education charities, including schools and academies.

Chris is an academy governor at an outstanding secondary school and a trustee of a local charity looking to build a new community sports and social club.