Settlement Agreement Solicitors

Who we are

As a team, we are comprised of eight qualified lawyers and three secretaries. Given the large size of our team, we are uniquely placed to advise large numbers of employees over a short period of time.

Work Examples

Our familiarity and experience in relation to mass settlement agreement projects has included:

• In 2024, advising employees leaving a large company in the renewable energy sector which was making approximately 35 staff redundant.
• In 2023, advising employees leaving a large healthcare trust in which we advised approximately 75 people.
• In 2022, advising a national housebuilder who were making approximately 40 staff redundant.
• In 2020, advising employees of a University who were making over 200 staff redundant. This project was undertaken during the Covid pandemic.
• In 2005 and 2012, assisting with two large settlement agreement projects for a national retailer, in which we advised, on each occasion, approximately 200 employees. This project involved attending the offices of the retailer, to advise employees at their offices at their convenience. We completed both of these projects, advising all 200 employees, within a 2 week period.

Our Approach

We aim to work with your organisation so that the process works as smoothly as possible for you and the employees involved. We recognise that communication is key and that these projects can require legal assistance to be provided within tight timescales.

Our suggested approach can be summarised as follows:

• Where possible, we find it helpful to see the template agreement and any covering letter in advance of you issuing it to staff. This enables us to understand the proposed terms and, if there are any amendments that we recommend, we can come back to you at an early stage to negotiate these. You can then consider any changes we recommend and adapt the agreement if needed. We find that this helps both sides to streamline the process, as we then don’t have to raise the same amendments on behalf of every employee. When we are advising employees we can then explain to them that the agreement is in a form that we have negotiated and are happy with.
• We will provide details of our telephone contact numbers and our email address, so that employees can choose how to get in touch with us. This makes it as easy as possible for employees to book appointments.
• We offer our meetings via Microsoft Teams. This means that we can advise employees across the UK, irrespective of their geographic location. There is no requirement for any employees to physically attend our offices. However, if preferable, we would be happy to conduct in person meetings, either at our office or at the work location of the employees involved.
• We will clearly explain to the employees what information we will need from them and the relevant administrative steps. These steps can be processed quickly where advice is needed urgently.
• We will send each employee a detailed letter providing the advice on the settlement agreement, and the process, which is common to all employees. We then organise individual meetings with each employee to advise them on any specific queries they may have. This makes the individual meetings efficient, as the employee can focus on any key questions that they may have in relation to their individual circumstances. This also means that employees aren’t waiting too long for a meeting, as we can offer them as promptly as possible.
• We will keep you updated throughout the process and would be happy to communicate in whichever way is most appropriate for your organisation.

Our proposed fees

It is customary for a settlement agreement to include a legal fee contribution toward the cost of employees seeking advice on the terms. We would be happy to discuss the fees and arrangements with you.

Next Steps

If you have any questions about how Paris Smith can assist, please get in touch. We would be very happy to organise a convenient time to discuss the situation and to see how we can help.

Clients

The Employment Team at Paris Smith LLP acts for a wide range of clients from large group companies to smaller owner-managed businesses. We operate both regionally and nationally, and we have a number of high profile and nationally-recognised clients that we are proud to be associated with.