Emily Clark

I am a partner in our International HR Services group, based in London. I advise on all aspects of UK employment law with particular experience in supporting multi-national companies with cross-border projects.

I advise clients on the full range of employment law matters, from day-to-day support on personnel queries to litigation in the Employment Tribunal and High Court and coordinating global employment projects.

A typical week might include drafting post-termination restrictions for a senior employee, advising on the handling of a complex investigation into sexual misconduct, coordinating a restructuring project involving redundancies and staff transfers in multiple jurisdictions and advising on gender pay gap reporting.

I am passionate about providing excellent client service. Whilst at Bird & Bird I have undertaken three client secondments to global corporations in different sectors. Sitting amongst the Legal and HR teams and working closely with the businesses has given me invaluable insight into how external lawyers can best support their clients, by providing swift, practical and business-focussed advice, as well as through the perhaps less glamorous – but incredibly important – administrative aspects such as fee reporting and billing processes.

The part of my job that I enjoy the most is working with our international team. Rarely a day goes by when I don't speak to someone from one of our other offices. As well as making my day more interesting, these close working relationships enable us to take a truly collaborative approach to client projects and provide seamless international advice.

I studied social and political sciences at university and am particularly interested in how the wider global political and cultural context influences the HR and employment law agenda. I am involved in a number of initiatives gathering insights into these trends so that we can share these with clients, enabling them to take a more strategic approach to changes on the horizon.

• Coordinating a project on behalf of a Fortune 500 science and technology company to produce a suite of template employment contracts for 12 countries with supporting drafting notes and Webex training for HR.
• Advising a multinational defence, security, and aerospace company on the implications of TUPE on various public sector outsourcing contracts and drafting and negotiating the TUPE schedules in the commercial agreements.
• Advising a US headquartered tech company on collective and individual redundancy processes in the UK and implementation of changes to its global sales plan across Europe.
• Advising a global manufacturer on a complex employee competition case involving the theft of confidential information. This included appointing forensic experts, advising on claims in the Employment Tribunal and High Court and a two-day mediation.
• Advising senior executives on the terms and effect of their settlement agreements and negotiating their severance pay and benefits packages, restrictions on post-termination competition and wording of internal and public announcements.