Richard specialises in employment law for major employers in the UK and internationally, with a particular focus on the financial services industry and other highly regulated sectors.

He has over 20 years’ experience advising clients across a range of sectors including financial services, insurance, real estate, commercial and tech.  His key financial services sector clients include global investment banks, multi-national insurers and brokers, wealth management businesses and private equity firms.  Richard’s other key clients include Tate & Lyle Sugars, the General Medical Council, Notting Hill Genesis and Sykes & Son.

Richard’s practice focuses on steering clients through complex advisory projects, the resolution of material disputes and the defence of high value litigation in the Tribunals and Higher Courts. He has led on the successful defence of numerous complex and high value discrimination and whistleblowing claims for financial services and insurance clients. He also regularly acts for clients seeking to protect against unlawful employee competition.

On the advisory side, Richard helps clients navigate through large scale collective redundancies, restructurings, in/outsourcings and the full range of business transfers and integrations. He gives commercially focused advice on sensitive employee complaints and disputes, senior management exits as well as practical guidance on the full range of employee relations issues from absence and performance management to disciplinary and grievance cases.

Relevant experience includes:

• The successful defence of dismissal related claims brought against a global investment bank by a former FX Salesperson, leading to clarification from the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) on the law surrounding misconduct.
• Securing interim injunctions and ground-breaking search and deletion orders from the High Court protecting an international insurance broker from misuse of its confidential information.
• Securing Court undertakings, for a leading wealth management business, to prevent a team of senior investment managers from working for a competing business following a 24 person team move.
• Advising on the employment aspects of the statutory amalgamation of a G15 housing organisation and the subsequent integration programme bringing together 2,500 employees.
• Leading on a significant restructuring programme within a commercial client involving international transfers.
• Advising on a sensitive investigation into allegations of non-financial misconduct by a senior manager within a financial services client.

Richard is recommended by leading legal directory the Legal 500 as a specialist litigator [2024 Ed] and for being 'pragmatic and unflappable under pressure’ with ‘very good client handling skills’ and the ability to combine ‘deep knowledge with a pragmatic common sense approach’ [2019 Ed].