IEL Elite

Overview

Alison Treliving in Manchester and Jill Kirila – who splits her time between Columbus, Miami, and New York – co-lead Squire Patton Boggs’ employment group. Treliving was recognised in IEL’s 2022 Women Leaders survey.

The team is spread across 27 offices in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and North America. Additional key contacts in the team include Julia Yeo in Singapore for Asia-Pacific matters, and José Martin in Miami for Latin America and the Caribbean.

What I value most about them is the fact that their advice is tailored and succinct. They have really listened to our values and invested strongly in the relationship with us.

New additions to the team include Kim Hodge, who joined the firm’s Perth office from McCabe Curwood in April 2022. Cleveland-based Will Kishman was promoted to partner in February 2022.

In November 2022, the firm launched a UK Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Training Solutions Package to support the D&I initiatives of companies with workforces the UK.

Specialisms

The department advises on the gamut of issues facing workforces. In particular, the team excels at co-ordinating transactional advice across multiple jurisdictions. Within this, it advises on M&A, IPOs, and equity capital increases, and supports with employee transfers, works council consultations, and workforce reductions.

In a recent example, Manchester-based Bryn Doyle led the advice to GB Group on the employment aspects of its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Acuant Intermediate Holdings. Advice spanned Australia, Belgium, Israel, Mexico, Poland, and the US.

The team’s prowess is further leveraged in global policy matters, as evidenced in advice to technology manufacturer Grass Valley on updating its annual leave policy, to remove fixed entitlement and effectively allow staff to take unlimited annual leave. The advice spanned Australia, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, and the UK.

In another example, Janette Lucas in London acted for Cummins on the re-categorisation of its workforce, in light of a new ways of working initiative. The project impacted around 60,000 members of staff, with advice spanning Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK – as well as Botswana, Ghana, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Qatar, South Africa, UAE, and Zambia.

Contentious work for the group includes acting on a wide variety of claims, from unlawful deductions to high-risk discrimination or whistleblowing allegations. Lucas also advised Tesco on equal pay claims raised by store staff who were claiming a right to equal pay to staff in distribution centres. Squire Patton Boggs advised on the dispute alongside Herbert Smith Freehills.

Team members are also specialised in D&I, and undertake a range of projects for clients relating to pay equity, and data collection. The team also provides training on key trends and challenges.

In addition, the group is able to work alongside other departments to provide cross-practice support in investigations, including those involving serious allegations of harassment, bullying, or discrimination.

Further areas of expertise include European works councils; employee compensation and benefits; data privacy in the EU, UK, US, and other markets; and business immigration and global mobility.

Clients