Management Committee

The ELA Management Committee has oversight of all ELA's work. It decides on key matters in relation to the Association's strategy and policy. For example, the Committee decides on the direction of its membership service development, oversees the Association's finances and constitution, and has overall responsibility for ELA's administrative function.

The Management Committee gives guidance to each of ELA's sub-committees, all of whom report back to the Committee. All new initiatives undertaken by the sub-committees are authorised by the Committee.

The Management Committee is elected annually from the membership. Elections take place each spring.

Management Committee 2009-10

Chair
Suzanne McKie

Before being elected to the position of Chair in May 2008 Suzanne spent 4 years as Deputy Chair and 2 years as Editor of ELA Briefing. Suzanne has also spent time on the Training and International sub-committees.

Suzanne is a barrister practising at Devereux Chambers. She was called in 1991 and specialises wholly in the field of employment and discrimination. She acts for both Claimants and Respondents. Suzanne is also qualified as a solicitor having spent three years working as an associate in private practice.


Suzanne has extensive knowledge of all services ELA provides. In 2008/9 as Chair she, in conjunction with ManCo, made difficult and sometimes contentious decisions cutting the budget in the light of credit crunch restraints; amended the fee structure to ensure a more equitable arrangement between individual and corporate members; proposed amendments to the constitution regarding the definition of membership and the election of officers and provided extra resources to ensure timely payment by members for the services they use.

This year Suzanne wishes to focus her efforts on encouraging new members to join and increasing networking events.

Deputy Chair
Joanne Owers

Joanne is a currently a partner at Fox Williams LLP having trained at Lovells and worked at both Baker & McKenzie and Charles Russell LLP. She has been an employment specialist since she qualified in 1995. She enjoys a diverse practice acting for a wide variety of primarily employer clients from multi nationals to public sector organisations as well as for senior executives. Since student days, she has had a particular interest in discrimination law and over the past few years has written and lectured widely in the area of age discrimination and developed an expertise in defending complex discrimination actions.

As a practising solicitor, Joanne has always greatly valued the work of ELA in particular the key role it plays in keeping all members up to speed on best practice, the ever increasing flow of legislation and case law as well as the vital role it plays in representing the interests of employment lawyers due to the high standing within the legal community it deservedly enjoys.

Joanne was Deputy Chair of ELA in 2008/9 and became Acting Chair of the Training Committee in January 2009 during Anne Pritam’s maternity leave. During this time, with the enormous help of that Committee, She led the planning for this year’s Annual Conference in Wales as well as on the ongoing training programme. Prior to that she has been an active member of ELA’s Training Committee since 2001 during which time she devised, planned and chaired numerous London evening sessions, break-out sessions at the Annual Conference and chaired and spoke at many ELA courses. She also served previously on the Management Committee as one of the London and South East regional representatives.

Treasurer
Jane Amphlett
Jane has been an employment lawyer and member of ELA since 1993, working in the regions and the City. She is currently a Partner in the Employment Team at Finers Stephen Innocent.

She is a regular attendee and occasional speaker at ELA seminars and other events. Jane became Treasurer last year because she believes the organisation provides a hugely valuable service to employment lawyers. Jane has previously sat on/advised the management committees of other organisations, including not for profit organisations.

Since becoming Treasurer of ELA in June 2008 she has been a regular attendee and contributor at Management Committee meetings and in respect of other matters appropriately dealt with by officers of the Association and has actively managed the finances of the Association. It has been a challenging period financially for various reasons but appropriate steps have been taken to maintain the organisation’s good finances

Secretary
Richard Linskell

Richard is a Partner with Speechly Bircham. Regularly advising both sides in employment disputes (not at the same time!) puts him in an ideal position to represent the perspective of both respondent and claimant lawyers.

He has acted in a number of reported cases, including Whitehouse v Blatchford & Sons (CA), has extensive advocacy experience in Employment Tribunals and the EAT. He regularly contributes articles to ELA Briefing and other journals.He is currently Secretary of ELA and have been on the Management Committee for five years. He is also on the Editorial Board of ELA Briefing.

He hopes to have the opportunity to continue contributing to ELA over the coming year and to making it both important and relevant to all parts of the membership, including increasing interest and participation in ELA in the regions and amongst those who see ELA as a respondent-focused organisation.

Editor, ELA Briefing
Alex Lock

Alex has been working as an employment lawyer since 1996, having undertaken a number of cases at the Free Representation Unit whilst studying at Bar School. He did not practice as a barrister, but worked for an organisation providing employment law services to industry

In 1999 he joined Beachcroft Wansbroughs (now Beachcroft LLP) in Bristol and became a partner in 2002. He has remained at Beachcroft and in Bristol and head a team o f 17 employment lawyers, part of a national group of over 80 lawyers and 14 partners.

He joined the editorial board about 6 years ago, serving as deputy editor under Daniel Barnett and then as editor for the past three years. During that period he believed an incisive, authoritative and readable journal has been produced. ELA Briefing underwent a re-design last year, which has only enhanced its standing as the leading employment law journal.

The coming year will be challenging for employers and employees, with employment law under increased scrutiny and pressure. As editor he will ensure the quality of our journal remains at the highest level, rising to meet the expectations of its readership with critical, timely and informative writing.

Chair, Training Committee
Gareth Brahams

Gareth qualified in 1995, joining Lewis Silkin in 2000. He has been a partner in the Employment Department of Lewis Silkin since 2002. and acts for both employers and employees, covering both contentious and non-contentious work. Previous firms include SJ Berwin, Capsticks and Eversheds. He is a regular conference speaker.

He first attended ELA National Conference as a trainee in 1994 and it inspired him to become an employment lawyer. He has attended on every occasion since then. He has sat on the ELA Training Committee since 2003 under the able chairing of Matt Dean and Anne Pritam.

As well as sitting on the ELA Training Committee for over six years, Gareth has been on two working parties, chaired numerous London evening sessions, spoken at breakout sessions at the annual conferences and annually takes two slots on ELA’s key introductory courses.

His aim is to keep our training interesting, innovative, great value, cutting edge and practical. He hopes it will inspire many more people to develop as employment lawyers, just as it did (and continues to do) for him.

Chair, Legislative & Policy Committee
Richard Fox

Richard is Head of Kingsley Napley’s Employment Department, having been with the firm since he qualified in 1986. He acts for corporates, organisations and high profile individuals in relation to the full range of employment issues, focusing in particular on confidentiality and restrictive covenants, executive pay, bonuses, severance arrangements, unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, business reorganisation and redundancy.

He was formally President of the London Solicitors Litigation Association (2000-2002) and has been Chair of ELA’s Legislative and Policy Subcommittee for the last year. He has lectured and written on all sorts of employment topics and has also been appointed on a number of occasions by the High Court to supervise the execution of search orders.

He has been a member of the Legislative & Policy Sub Committee (L & P) for many years and for the last twelve months have been Chair. His involvement with ELA came to prominence in 2006 when he chaired a working group which produced the ELA Tribunal Monitoring Survey which heralded the demise of the unlamented Statutory Dismissal Procedures. He has been involved in subsequent consultations in relation to the new ACAS Statutory Code and the Accompanying Guidance (which ELA working party he chaired), and the ACAS telephone helpline, as well as numerous subcommittees dealing with issues such as Lord Justice Jackson’s review of costs and his related enquiry into this issue from an employment perspective. He also chaired an ELA working party on the Prevention of Illegal Working. Before he was Chair of L & P he worked on many Sub Committees dealing with issues such as Age Discrimination and Working Time.

Chair, International Committee
Monica Kurnatowska


Monica joined Baker & McKenzie LLP as a trainee and has been a partner since 2004.

Monica has a particular interest in TUPE and collective issues, and also sensitive employment litigation. Working in an international law firm she regularly deal with cross border and international employment issues. Monica works with clients both on coordinating advice on multi jurisdiction projects and on coming up with cross border solutions and approaches to particular employments matters.

She has been a member of the ELA International Committee since 2007, and in 2008 she arranged and chaired a training session on international data protection issues. She has also contributed to ELA briefings. She proposes to build on the excellent work of the existing chair and committee, particularly in extending links with associations of employment lawyers overseas, continuing the international series of training sessions, and raising the profile of international issues among UK employment lawyers.

Chair, Pro Bono Committee
Paul Daniels

After school in South Wales, Paul studied law at Wadham College, Oxford. After training as a solicitor at Linklaters, he joined RJW in 1995 and is now a Partner in RJW’s Employment Department in London. He specialises in advising Senior Executives and employees, with particular experience of disability issues, sex discrimination, High Court disputes, whistleblowing and representing football managers. In 2005 he was appointed a part-time Employment Judge in sunny Croydon.

He has been a member of the ELA Legislative and Policy Committee for the last 5 years. He recently chaired the ELA committee commenting on the proposed introduction of indirect discrimination to disability law. He has been increasingly involved in the Pro Bono Committee and is very keen to get more employment lawyers involved in pro bono work, to make this easier in practice and to improve links with FRU and the Bar Pro Bono Unit.

Representative of the Bar
Mohinderpal Sethi

Mohinderpal is a barrister at Devereux Chambers. He has specialised in employment law at the Bar since 1996 and, before then, as an Employment Litigation Manager for BT Group Legal Services.

His practice encompasses all aspects of workplace disputes: He acts for employers and employees, city firms, niche employment practices, trade unions and public authorities in the tribunals, High Court and on appeal. His particular interests are employee competition, bonus claims, TUPE, discrimination and whistle-blowing.

He has written and spoken widely on employment law issues at expert level for various organisations including ELA for many years. He has been a member of the editorial committee of ELA Briefing since 2000 and is pleased with its bright 'new look' and format. In view of the wide-ranging nature of my practice, he will seek to continue to provide a progressive and broad contribution to the work of the Management Committee.

In-House Representative for the ELA Management Committee (Co-opted)
Ming Henderson-Vu Thi

Ming is a French and English qualified solicitor, and first qualified as a lawyer in 1995.

Ming Henderson is the Senior Employment Counsel for Oracle Corporation based in the UK and oversees employment issues across Europe Middle East and Africa. Oracle Corporation employs around 3,000 employees in the UK and 15,000 across EMEA.

Prior to joining Oracle in April 2009, Ming was Head of the Employment Law Practice for EMEA, Group HR at Royal Bank of Scotland, and before that, a Partner at Kramer Levin heading the Employment law Department in Paris where she practised for 12 years.

Ming has significant experience in cross-border transactions and is involved in employment law aspects of mergers and acquisitions, multijurisdictional harmonisation of terms and conditions, implementation of new global employment contracts and global restructurings, collective consultation and employment litigation across the EMEA region.

Ming is a regular speaker at international employment law seminars in the UK, continental Europe and the US.

Ming is also a member of the ELA International Committee.

Regional Representatives

London & the South East
Anna Henderson

Anna qualified at CMS Cameron McKenna in 1994 and has been a professional support lawyer at Herbert Smith since 2000.

In 2001, she co-founded PEN, a nationwide network for employment PSLs, in which she still plays a key role.

She has recently been heavily involved in producing ELA’s response to the Acas Code, raising ELA’s concerns with Acas about its Helpline, and contributing to ELA’s reponse to the consultation on secondary legislation.

She has been an active member of the ELA Briefing Editorial Committee since 2001 and (as PEN representative) also helped design ELA’s foundation training course for newly qualifieds. Anna’s involvement in ELA has deepened gradually and she is now keen to play a more prominent role in helping to meet whatever challenges it may face around the next corner. Her involvement in ELA’s response to the Acas Code has shown her what influence it wields in the legislative and policy arena and has highlighted the value of sharing with members the insights obtained through dialogue with government and other bodies. Her work on ELA Briefing has shown her the importance of diversity in the views ELA represents.

London & the South East
Jane Mulcahy

Jane was called to the Bar in 1995 and practice at Blackstone Chambers. The vast majority of her work involves employment law, both in the High Court and the Employment Tribunals. In recent months she has been involved in a sex discrimination claim for £19m (which is ongoing); a sexual orientation discrimination case concerning an air steward on a private jet; defended a City solicitors’ firm faced with a claim for equal pay, and brought a claim of disability discrimination on behalf of an individual against a large financial institution.

Blackstone Chambers is very committed to ELA. Members have worked on the Management Committee in the past, and others have taken time out to be involved in the ELA training programme. Jane very much wants to be involved in developing ELA’s programme for employment lawyers. She also hopes to increase the number of Barristers serving on the Management Committee

North West
Philip Harman
Philip is a partner in the Employment Practice Area of Cobbetts LLP. Philip advises a wide range of employers upon all aspects of employment law and industrial relations. Philip also acts for employers and senior employees in pursuing or defending claims in the Employment Tribunal. Philip has a particular interest in the European aspect of Employment Law.

Philip is responsible for training within the Employment Practice Area at Cobbetts LLP and also has a Knowledge Management role within the firm

He has been a member of ELA since 1996 and, since May 2005, has served as the North West Regional Representative. During that time he has regularly participated in ELA Management and Training Committee meetings representing the interests of the region. He has organised regular evening training sessions, one of the fullest training programmes outside of London. He has endeavoured to ensure that the quality of the speakers is maintained to a high standard that, both in style and content, is of direct relevance to practising lawyers. He has been very active in the development of a pilot pro-bono employment law support service for the region. He has been involved in ELA’s consultation exercise to collate and present the views of North West members as to the future of the Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures. He has supported and encouraged member participation with the ET User group and the Tribunal shadowing scheme. Philip has also encouraged communication between members in the North West and ELA.

North East
Louise Bloomfield
Louise is based in the Employment and Pensions Group at Beachcroft LLP in Leeds, specialising in strategic employment advice for private sector organisations, as well as handling a large employment tribunal case load. She trained at Eversheds LLP and then spent over 4 years at Pinsent Masons LLP in the employment team. During her career, I have also spent a significant amount of time on secondment with the in-house legal team at one of Britain’s largest retailers.

Louise wants to ensure that the ELA in the North East meets the needs of its members at all levels including in-house. She has ideas for taking the role forward which include offering training sessions and meetings to ELA members at all levels and at different times and locations, and working with the Regional Chairman to look at ways of engaging members with the local employment tribunals. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there will be more social events giving members the chance to actively network amongst their peer groups

Midlands
Tariq Sadiq
Tariq is a Barrister who has specialised in employment law for over fifteen years. He is Treasury Counsel and in 2009 was appointed to the Welsh Assembly Panel of Counsel for employment work. He is consistently recommended as a leading employment Barrister in the Midlands by Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500.

Since his appointment, he has arranged regular training sessions in Birmingham and Nottingham to the extent that the Midlands region now has the busiest lecture programme in the country outside London. He intends to pilot lunchtime sessions and video conference sessions. Tariq has set up shadowing schemes for members to shadow a Judge in Birmingham and Nottingham tribunals. He has set up and been involved in the Pro-Bono Employment Advice and Assistance Scheme in Birmingham. He has also chaired the regions response to the Gibbons Review regarding statutory procedures and attended local ET User Groups on behalf of ELA members.

South Wales
Damian Phillips

Damian a partner in the Employment department of Darwin Gray LLP. He qualified in 1997 in a medium sized Cardiff firm, undertaking a variety of mainly contentious areas of law. In 2002, he joined a large Bristol practice, reinventing himself as a specialist employment lawyers. He joined Hugh James in 2003, advancing to Senior Associate, before joining Darwin Gray this year. He practises all aspects of employment law, having a particular interest in industrial relations. He is an experienced advocate, regularly appearing in the Employment Tribunal. He also provide pro bono assistance at Cardiff Law Centre.

Over the past year Damian helped to organise several social functions, including reviving the annual quiz. He has helped arrange a full programme of evening sessions. He has contributed to the organisation of the ELA Conference. He is working on future training sessions and social events. He wishes to build on my efforts during the past year and revive the Employment Judge Shadowing Scheme at Cardiff Employment Tribunal, which he has not yet completed.

South West
David Major
David qualified as a solicitor in September 2002, having spent a significant proportion of his training contract focusing solely on employment law. He advises on a full range of employment law issues, both contentious and non-contentious.

His contentious experience includes complex discrimination and TUPE cases, as well as appeals to the EAT, and he has conducted advocacy in both the civil courts and the employment tribunals.
David also handles non-contentious work, advising on contracts, policies, procedures and severance agreements, as well as providing support to HR professionals on an ad hoc basis and advising on employment issues in commercial transactions.

Scotland
Paul Brown

Paul is the Partner and Head of the Employment Unit at Biggart Baillie LLP. He is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde and has specialised in employment law for 15 years. He lives in the outskirts of Glasgow.

He has been a member of the Employment Lawyers Association for a considerable number of years and was one of the first scottish lawyers to regularly attend the annual conference. In the early days, as a Scottish lawyer it was frustrating that the ELA was concentrated mostly in London. However, this has changed significantly over the last few years and he would hope to be able to continue the development of the ELA in Scotland and indeed to represent Scotland’s Employment lawyers interests within the organisation. Paul hopes that he can build upon the success of the last few representatives in developing the ELA in Scotland.

Northern Ireland
Jenine McCourt

Jenine qualified as an employment solicitor with a commercial firm in the Midlands and relocated back to Northern Ireland in 2004 to work as an assistant solicitor at Rosemary Connolly Solicitors. In 2007 she became a partner. She specialises in employment law and acts for employees and employers in both contentious and non contentious matters.

She has written articles on employment and equality law and os regular speaker at Legal Island conference events on Employment Law. She is also an accredited tutor at the Institute of Legal Studies on Employment Law and Industrial Tribunal Procedure.

She was a member of ELA as a trainee solicitor and continue as a member from qualification. In 2008-2009 she was the Northern Ireland representative on the Management Committee and attended all meetings by telephone conference.
She would like to build links with other ELA regions especially in light of Northern Ireland’s unique dual Tribunal. Jenine considers that useful information relevant to all employment lawyers inNortherm Ireland can be gained from maintaining a relationship with UK employment lawyers.

Members at Large

Jonathan Chamberlain

Jonathan has been a Partner in Wragge & Co LLP’s employment team for some ten years, practising in all areas of employment law. He has been a regular speaker at ELA events.

After 12 months on the Committee, he is beginning to get to grips with how it works and would like to bring the benefit of that experience to bear. He feels that ELA’s important roles in training, lobbying and promoting our discipline largely take place through the specialist committees with the support of members but this committee has an important role supporting those activities.

Henry Clinton-Davis


Henry started life as a tenant in what is now Littleton Chambers, and has worked for both UK and US firms and for a short stint, was seconded as in-house counsel to a department store. Whilst his family feels that this has not increased his skills as a shopper, or his dress sense, it has given him a good understanding of all sides of the profession! He has a particular interest in international employment issues and in seeing smaller firms take a greater role in ELA.

He has been an active member of ELA for several years and am currently a member at large on the Management Committee. He has facilitated a break-out session at the Annual Conference and is helping to organise a mock trial at a joint ELA/ABA event in May. In the past he has organised an international panel session comparing approaches to hiring and firing in various countries and will be taking over shortly as Vice-Chair of the International Committee.

David Ludlow

David is an Employment Partner in the Surrey Firm, Barlow Robbins LLP. which has offices in Woking, Guildford and Godalming.

He was previously an in-house employment lawyer at New Scotland Yard (1991 to 1997) and prior to that (1987 to 1991) practiced in Holborn (Woodham Smith) and the West End (The Simkins Partnership). He has specialised mainly in Employer/Respondent work but have done some high profile work particularly in discrimination through the EOC/EHRC panel.

He has worked on the Training Committee for 6 years and throughout that period have been actively involved in organising and chairing London Evening Sessions, the Annual Conferences and courses such as the Rounded Employment Lawyer.

He has served for 1 year on the management committee as the London & South East Rep attending all but one meeting, working on the ELA Public Relations sub-committee working group and has volunteered to attend the National ET User Group meetings in 2009. This year he has done one ELA/ Pro Bono Unit case in the Ashford Tribunal and has participated in a Legislative & Policy Committee working party.

Katharine Newton

Katharine is a barrister at Old Square Chambers practising exclusively in the field of employment law. She was called to the Bar in 1999, having studied International and Comparative Employment Law as part of her Masters degree, and having completed a ‘stage’ at the European Commission. She is listed as a leading employment junior in past and present editions of Chambers and Partners and act for both employers and employees in the employment tribunals, High Court, mediations and the appellate courts. She reguarly lecture on a variety of topics within the employment law sphere.

Having a diverse employment law practice, she hopes to draw on my experience of appearing in all regions of Great Britain and acting for those on both sides of the Claimant and Respondent fence, in order to help maintain the balance of ELA. She has considerable committee experience having sat for a number of years on various committees including the Bar Council Equality and Diversity Committee.

Catherine Richmond

Catherine Richmond has nerdish tendencies and can become oddly excited about obscure areas of employment law. She has however learned not to wear socks with sandals and has successfully hoodwinked Nabarro LLP into making her a partner in its employment team. Before becoming a solicitor she efficiently extended student life and avoided having to get a proper job for several years by living in Florence, eating, drinking and writing a PhD thesis in legal philosophy that may have been read by as many as two people (one being her mum).

Catherine has frequently contributed towards the bonhomie of the ELA by drinking with other ELA members at The Lamb after London Evening Sessions. She has been a member of several working parties of the Legislative & Policy Committee, most recently in December 2008 on the public procurement consultation, and has been a speaker at the ELA Refresher Course. She is excited at the thought of being At Large, and as someone who actually does what she promises is fully prepared to do whatever is needed to help support the work of the Committee and other Committee members