Team Member: Natalie Peacock

Department: Litigation and Employment

Natalie is a Chartered Legal Executive specialising in Civil Litigation and Employment Law. She qualified in 2021 as a Fellow of CILEX and is supervised by Peter Hastings, Director and Head of Litigation.

Background, Qualifications and Areas of Expertise

I am an experienced specialist employment lawyer specialising in both contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. This includes drafting contracts, policies, and procedures for employers; advising on settlement agreements; unfair dismissal; redundancy processes; TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings); as well as harassment and discrimination issues.

 

Over the years I have represented employees and employers for a variety of matters in particular:   

• Representing an employee in determining their employment status as a preliminary issue before successfully claiming unfair dismissal.


• Representing an employee in sex discrimination proceedings.


• Representing an employer in defending unlawful deduction from wages claim.


• Representing an employer in defending sexual harassment proceedings.


• Representing an employer in enforcing post-termination restrictions against an employee who had set up a business in direct competition.


• Assisting employers in complying with rules and regulations when dismissing employees on the grounds of long-term sickness or capability.


• Successfully negotiating higher settlement payments for employees in voluntary Settlement Agreements.

 

I have assisted in drafting Contracts and Policy Handbooks for new businesses just starting out as well as reviewing and updating Contracts for well established companies to ensure they comply with current legislation.

As well as specialising in employment law, I have many years experience in housing and contract law, having started my career as a Housing Officer for a social housing provider before moving to Shelter to assist tenants with housing issues. I later qualified as a Chartered Legal Executive in civil litigation at another local law firm.

Interests

In my spare time, I enjoy attending music events (especially anything related to 80s pop music!) and going to the theatre.