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Improving diversity at the top
Bina Patel
“Bina provided an outstanding service and a high level of expertise which enabled me to navigate a tricky situation with a measured and reasonable approach. Highly recommended."
A client
Bina is a highly accomplished employment law specialist with considerable experience in dealing with all aspects of the employment relationship from recruitment to termination.
Bina acts for both employers and senior executives across various sectors in providing clear, tailored and strategic advice and dealing with disputes in the most effective way. She has particular expertise in the legal, financial and other professional services and higher education sectors as well as with luxury brands.
In acting for employers, Bina utilises her exceptional insight into and understanding of the client’s business and the particular employee issues it faces to provide invaluable guidance and support on a range of employment law and related matters. Bina specialises in successfully extricating senior executives from difficult situations at work (with particular expertise in dealing with workplace bullying, harassment and discrimination). Bina is a tough negotiator and regularly secures valuable exit packages for senior executives as well as substantial financial settlements in litigation.
Bina enjoys the personal nature of working closely with clients to better understand their particular needs and objectives and to ensure that these are met by using her expertise and knowledge in finding practical and commercial solutions and maximising and achieving the best results for her clients.
Bina is a formidable litigator and regularly deals with claims in the Employment Tribunal, including unfair dismissal, whistleblowing, discrimination, sexual harassment, equal pay, unlawful deduction of wages, as well as claims in the High Court including in respect of breach of contract and disputes involving post termination restrictions.
Further information
Bina is a contributor to “Termination of Employment” (Bloomsbury Professional) in respect of the chapters on Constructive Dismissal and Practical Aspects of Termination.
Bina was recently a member of the ELA Working Party providing the ELA’s response to the BEIS Consultation on pregnancy and maternity discrimination: extending redundancy protection for women and new parents.
Recent work
• Advised a large organisation on investigating complaints of bullying and harassment against one of its employees and handling the ongoing relationship between the complainant and the employee.
• Acted for a director in defending serious allegations of breaches of directors’ duties and successfully avoided potentially damaging and costly litigation for the director by negotiating a reasonable settlement of the dispute.
• Acted for a senior executive in the financial services sector in respect of complex unfair dismissal and disability discrimination claims with potentially significant career losses involving sensitive reputational and regulatory issues.
• Advised and supported a company on handling serious complaints of racial discrimination and victimisation by a staff member and minimising its potential legal liabilities in relation to this.
• Advised a senior executive subjected to a campaign of unlawful harassment and sex discrimination and assisted the employee throughout tough settlement discussions with the employer resulting in securing a favourable exit package for the employee.
• Providing wide-ranging employment advice, guidance and support to professional service firms.
• Securing a great result for an employer client in settling employment tribunal proceedings involving multiple claims by persuading the claimant to withdraw the claims in exchange for agreeing not to pursue the claimant for costs.
• Acted for the company in relation to a boardroom dispute between directors and assisted in successfully reaching a resolution to prevent the departure of a director and the potential damaging effects this would have had on the business.
• Negotiated and secured valuable exit terms for an employee in circumstances of potential claims for unfair dismissal and age discrimination to avoid protracted and costly litigation and damage to the employee’s reputation in the market.
• Acted on and ran a high value and complex whistleblowing claim for a senior executive against his former employer and achieved a substantial financial settlement for the client.
• Acted for a company in respect of an ex-employee’s misuse of confidential information and breach of restrictive covenants and successfully obtained suitable undertakings and a settlement sum from the ex-employee – avoiding the substantial time and expense of injunction proceedings in the High Court for the company.
• Bina has also acted on other important, high value claims, including acting for a senior female executive in the EAT case of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc v Bennett UKEAT/0213/07 in respect of her successful claims for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination as well as representing the successful employee in the leading Court of Appeal case of Prophet PLC v Huggett [2014] EWCA Civ 1013, relating to the enforceability of post-termination restrictions.
Memberships
- Employment Law Association
- Industrial Law Society