Robert J. Kinloch

Robert advises employers, and only employers. The work runs from the routine, including contracts of employment, handbooks, policies and settlement agreements, to the matters that arrive without warning: a disciplinary process that has gone wrong, a restructuring, a senior departure with a restrictive covenant attached, or a tribunal claim that has already been lodged.

Employment law is reserved to the United Kingdom Parliament, so the substantive rules are largely the same across Great Britain. The administration is not. Employment tribunals in Scotland are separately run and appeals from them travel a different route, and advice given on the assumption that a Scottish employer is in the English system tends to be right about the law and wrong about the procedure.

The second half of Robert's practice is commercial contracting, covering supply and distribution agreements, terms and conditions of business, agency and consultancy arrangements, confidentiality, and the contractual side of data protection. The common thread is documents that people have to operate, often without a lawyer in the room, which is the reason he favours agreements that are short enough to be read.