24 HOURSWITH 24HOURS
A day in the life of a Kent employment lawyer
Susanna Gilmartin is a lawyer and partner at Thomson Snell & Passmore solicitors which has offices in Tunbridge Wells and on the Crossways Business Park near Dartford.
Susanna Gilmartin
Susanna regularly speaks at events on employment law issues and provides training and updates on employment law. She also edits the teams monthly email update bulletin Workplace Law
Susanna provides advice on all employment law related matters and works for both employers and individuals. On any given day she may provide a MD of a small company that doesn’t have HR with advice on how to carry out a disciplinary investigation, provide employment support to our corporate team who are selling a company for several millions of pounds, advise an employee on how best to maximise a compensation payment they have been offered by their employer under a settlement agreement and draft a case management agenda to be lodged with the employment tribunal on a case that has been listed for a preliminary hearing. No two days are the same and no two clients are the same either. Susanna has been an employment lawyer for 15 years. She loves what she does because the people she deals with are often going through a very challenging time and she feels that the advice and assistance she gives can really make a difference and has a very positive impact. Susanna has been ranked in Chambers & Partners as a Leader in her Field in employment law since 2011 and has been praised by her clients because she is quick to respond, efficient and reassuring.
She is described by her clients as someone who in difficult and stressful times gives clients confidence and the support they need to make difficult and complex decisions. Susanna has been based in Thomson Snell & Passmore’s office on the Crossways Business Park for the past 20 months and moved there from the Tunbridge Wells office to develop and grow an employment team in the Thames Gateway. She currently has one employment lawyer and a trainee solicitor working with her. She is usually at her desk by 8.00am. First order of the day is a strong cup of coffee. She spends the first hour of most days working through the emails that she received overnight. She also checks and approves any work that has been done by junior team members so it can be sent to clients. Susanna generally spends the morning working on client matters which will often require her to spend quite a bit of time drafting email advices, corresponding or speaking with opponents on the other side as well as speaking with clients. Susanna spends at least an hour in the afternoon again checking and approving any work that has been done by junior members of the
team, talking through client issues with them and offering guidance on strategy and advice. Susanna tries to spend a part of her day doing some form of business development. She organises and runs a number of HR Clubs in Kent, one on the Crossways Business Park, another in Chatham and a third in Folkestone. She regularly speaks at events on employment law issues and provides training and updates on employment law. She also edits the teams monthly email update bulletin Workplace Law. Work however is unpredictable, so she could get a call from a client saying that they have just discovered that an employee who left them last week has joined a competitor and in breach of his post termination restrictions has poached some of their staff and clients and they want immediate action taken to stop this activity in which case everything that she might have planned to do that day will be put on hold for at least 24 hours. If you would like to receive Workplace Law or attend one of Susanna’s HR Clubs or have a free in-house employment update and brain storming session please contact charlotte.astridge@ts-p.co.uk
April - May 2016 ThinkingBUSINESS
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