How do we help our clients adopt an appropriate cost vs risk balance when obtaining employment law advice?

In the management of any business, the balance between cost and risk is critical. We recognise that taking legal advice on employment matters is a cost to our clients’ businesses and it is important to drive that cost down as far as reasonably possible; however, where cost is squeezed, risk can increase. By waiting to obtain legal advice until late in the day, an employer may successfully reduce the cost of obtaining that advice but by taking action without legal guidance, there is a greater prospect that a tribunal claim may result. Such delay can therefore be a false economy, and proactive action can often provide more effective mitigation against expensive litigation.  It is important that our clients strike the correct balance between reducing legal costs whilst also obtaining legal advice at the most appropriate stage in a process in order to properly protect the business and avoid the possibility of a future expensive employment tribunal claim. We place this imperative at the heart of how we provide our service. 

Our approach 
At Machins Solicitors, we spend time getting to know and understand our corporate clients’ businesses so we can provide tailored advice for all employment matters in order to avoid costly disputes.  We achieve this by offering a bespoke client-led service with a dedicated team of employment law professionals who provide early guidance and support as and when issues arise ensuring that every clients’ legal business risks are managed throughout.  This approach anticipates future disputes and whilst we acknowledge it may lead to increased cost in the short term it can (and will) help reduce the costs burden over the longer term. We take pride in building lasting relationships with the individuals that make their businesses run smoothly and our clients benefit from having dedicated employment lawyers with commercial expertise who take the time to find the right solution.  

Our expertise 
Employment is about relationships. By offering a tailored legal solution we ensure that each client has every aspect of the employment life-cycle covered including properly drafted contracts and workplace policies that are aligned with actual practices and tailored to individual industry sectors across small businesses to multi-nationals right through to appropriately drafted termination letters and decision rationales.  We guide our clients through workplace disputes and challenges to ensure they strike the appropriate balance for them based on their risk appetite.  Managing employment law matters for any business can be a legal minefield and while it is impossible to reduce the risk of claims arising entirely, the Machins team have the specialist knowledge to ensure that any claims are effectively defended guiding clients to the best possible outcome. 

Our team 
We do not operate a “one size fits all” approach to legal advice.  ‘The team is always responsive, fully understand our business needs and ensure they explain options and risks fully but simply.‘ (Legal 500 2020). We understand the challenges faced by business. Centrally, because fees for taking employment legal advice is a cost to the business that typically cannot be recovered, it is important to keep the cost of obtaining employment advice to a minimum. Our clients benefit from advice from highly experienced lawyers and litigators from both local and City firms but without the associated City costs. We offer an exceptional service and drive down cost by allocating work within the team to appropriate level fee earners in order to keep costs low.  To ensure that the quality of our advice is never compromised all work is supervised at Partner level but without adding substantial changes for the Partner’s time. This maintains an exceptionally high quality of work but reduces costs significantly.  

Finding the right solution 
Navigating employment law can be an extremely complicated and our team of experts are able to provide concise and clear advice that can be easily implemented into our clients’ businesses.  Our team has substantial experience of working with a variety of clients ranging from individuals to SMEs and large multi-national corporations, meaning we have a wealth of knowledge in understanding how to prevent, and approach, employment disputes if they arise. Given our depth of experience dealing with Tribunal claims from both the employer and employee side, we understand the financial and emotional implications involved in the process and we take a sensitive approach to navigating our way through disputes to avoid protracted litigation. Commerciality is at the heart of the solutions we provide and we ensure that our advice focuses on not only the strengths or weaknesses of a case but also the wider ramifications of the case across our client’s business.    We provide clear and accurate advice that balances financial risk and management time involved in defending claims against the cost and likelihood of reaching a settlement. Some of our clients are not comfortable with settling claims that are not well founded, in which case we will provide them with cost estimates throughout to help them make informed decisions on the financial implications of disputing claims and work with them to consider measures they can implement to mitigate against further litigation.  For those clients that simply wish to resolve cases for the lowest possible cost, we adopt appropriate tactics to ensure that we reach the best possible settlement whilst generating the minimum possible cost. 

We understand that employment law often crosses over into other disciplines and are we are proud of our in-house collaboration across our other departments delivering a rounded and seamless service that deals with our clients’ issues holistically across every relevant practice areas.   

This article appeared in https://www.wpp4-ft.com/legal-thoughts. For information contact David Rushmere (Partner) on T 01582 514 370 or [email protected] .