Employment Law & HR Team
Meet your team of leading Employment Law & HR experts
Employment Law & HR Service Line Heads
Astrid Yarwood
Director of Employment Law and HR
Astrid Yarwood
Director of Employment Law and HR
With over 20 years in senior leadership Astrid brings deep expertise in employment law and mediation paired with a strong commercial focus. Astrid has led organisation‑wide change programmes, guiding complex people management and strategic planning initiatives that strengthen culture, compliance and performance. Her practical, business‑oriented approach supports employers through transformation, dispute resolution and workforce engagement, ensuring fair, legally robust outcomes. A trusted leader and adviser, she connects legal insight with HR strategy to deliver impact across diverse sectors, championing effective governance and positive employee relations.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Mediation
- Change management
- Employee Relations
- Training
- HR strategy
Jay Bhayani
Executive Director and Head of HR Consultancy & Training
Jay Bhayani
Executive Director and Head of HR Consultancy & Training
Jay has over 25 years experience as an employment solicitor and has managed all aspects of employment law and HR. Jay is Managing Director of Bhayani Law, part of the Make UK group and Strategic Head of Make UK’s HR Consultancy and Training team. She is also an Executive Director of Make UK.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- HR strategy
- Employment Law
- Leadership & Management
- Business relationship development
- Change management
Employment Law Team, North
Amar Tembe
Barrister and Head of Employment Law, North
Amar Tembe
Barrister and Head of Employment Law, North
Amar has over 35 years of experience in dealing with complex and complicated contentious and non-contentious employment litigation, including all aspects of discrimination, whistleblowing, and TUPE. Amar also has substantial experience in employee relations and dealing with trade unions, including dealing with TU recognition claims and applications to the CAC.
Amar has led the North Employment Law team more than ten years, delivering pragmatic and commercially focused support to clients. Before joining Make UK, Amar worked in general litigation and crime in the public sector.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Representation
- Employee Relations
- Discrimination & Whistleblowing
- Managing workplace conflict & complex disputes
- Managing senior employee exits
Andrew Galvin
Senior Legal Adviser
Andrew Galvin
Senior Legal Adviser
Andrew is a highly experienced solicitor with over 25 years’ experience and has substantial experience of aiding both multi-national and regional employers.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Representation
- Discrimination
- TUPE
- Negotiating and drafting Settlement Agreements
- Restructuring and Redundancy
Guy Holden
Senior Legal Adviser
Guy Holden
Senior Legal Adviser
Guy has over 20 years’ experience (including in-house) in the provision of pragmatic employment law advice and good practice.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Dealing with Trade Union issues and negotiations
- Training including on Trade union/s
- HR Policies
- Disciplinary & Grievance Issues
- Absence Management
James Heath
Senior Legal Adviser
James Heath
Senior Legal Adviser
James has over 15 years’ experience in the provision of pragmatic and commercially-focused employment legal advice.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Representation
- Training
- Negotiating and Drafting Settlement Agreements
- Disciplinary & Grievance issues
- Absence Management
Joanne Halliday
Senior Legal Adviser
Joanne Halliday
Senior Legal Adviser
Joanne has over 20 years’ experience in the provision of HR & Legal advice which is pragmatic and commercially-focused.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Training & Development
- Negotiation of Settlements & ACAS EC matters
- Negotiating and drafting of Settlement Agreements
- Employee Relations
- HR Policies
Jonathan Young
Senior Legal Adviser
Jonathan Young
Senior Legal Adviser
Jonathan has over 35 years’ experience in the provision of HR& Legal advice, having previously worked in manufacturing and advises on complex ER and HR issues.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Advising and handling of Trade union issues and Negotiations
- HR Policies
- Training on Trade Union Issues
- Negotiating settlements and drafting Settlement Agreements
- HRL intervention to resolve workplace conflict
Lisa Vaughan
Senior Legal Adviser
Lisa Vaughan
Senior Legal Adviser
Lisa brings over 20 years’ experience as a barrister in employment law, providing pragmatic and commercially-focused advice.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Representation
- Negotiating and Drafting Settlement Agreements
- Dealing with Boardroom disputes
- Discrimination & Whistleblowing
- Negotiating Settlements & ACAS EC matters
Martin Warren-Jones
Senior Legal Adviser
Martin Warren-Jones
Senior Legal Adviser
Martin is a solicitor with over 25 years’ experience who provides advice to employers in all aspects of employment law, with clients valuing his commercial, considered and down-to-earth approach.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Advocacy
- Negotiating and drafting Settlement Agreements
- Discrimination & Whistleblowing
- TUPE
- Working with Trade Unions
Milan Dulovic
Senior Legal Adviser
Milan Dulovic
Senior Legal Adviser
Milan, with over 40 years’ experience as a barrister, provides advice to employers in all aspects of employment law, with clients valuing Milan’s personable approach and his commercial, considered and clear advice.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Advocacy
- Discrimination
- Whistleblowing
- Breakdown in Employment Relationship
- TUPE
Peter Sandeman
Senior Legal Adviser
Roger Grove
Senior Legal Adviser
Roger Grove
Senior Legal Adviser
Roger is a Solicitor with over 35 years’ experience in employment law and provides pragmatic and commercially-focused advice.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Representation
- Discrimination
- Managing workplace conflict
- Disciplinary and Grievance issues
- Absence Management
Simon Rochester
Senior Legal Adviser
Simon Rochester
Senior Legal Adviser
Simon has over 20 years’ experience as a solicitor in employment law and provides pragmatic and commercially-focused legal advice.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal Representation and Advocacy
- Discrimination
- Negotiating settlements & ACAS EC matters
- Drafting complex and complicated Settlement Agreements
- Training
Employment Law Team, Midlands
Martin Quinn
Solicitor and Head of Employment Law, Midlands
Martin Quinn
Solicitor and Head of Employment Law, Midlands
Martin is a dual-qualified solicitor, having started his legal career in New Zealand before cross-qualifying in the UK. With over 30 years’ experience advising employers on both contentious and non-contentious employment matters, he brings extensive expertise to his role. For more than a decade, Martin has led the Midlands HR & Legal team at Make UK, delivering high-quality support to subscription members with a strong focus on service and client satisfaction. He spearheaded the launch of the Make UK Adviceline and continues to oversee the team’s compliance with the ISO9001 quality standard, driving operational excellence and continuous improvement.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- TUPE
- Managing employee exits
- Employment Tribunal representation
- Redundancy and reorganisation
- Discrimination
Gafyn Griffiths-Jones
Senior Legal Adviser
Gafyn Griffiths-Jones
Senior Legal Adviser
Gafyn has over 20 years’ experience of employment law practice and has additional experience of dealing with commercial and construction law matters.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- TUPE
- Redundancy and reorganisation
- Discipline and grievance issues
- Industrial Relations
- Employment Tribunal advocacy
Glenn Gaselee
Senior Legal Adviser
Glenn Gaselee
Senior Legal Adviser
Glenn brings over 20 years’ experience in employment law and provides pragmatic, commercially-focused legal advice, with expertise in change management, and settlement agreements.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Change management
- Settlement agreements
- Absence management, disciplinary and grievance hearings
- Employment tribunal representation
- Drafting service agreements and post termination restrictions
Iain Lovejoy
Senior Legal Adviser
Iain Lovejoy
Senior Legal Adviser
Iain advises businesses, educational institutions and public bodies on a wide range of employment law matters, with significant Employment Tribunal advocacy experience.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Redundancy and restructuring
- TUPE
- Employment Tribunal advocacy
- Discrimination and whistleblowing
- Unfair dismissal and breach of contract
Ian Wilson
Solicitor, and Head of Legal (Key Accounts)
Ian Wilson
Solicitor, and Head of Legal (Key Accounts)
Overall responsibility for management and governance of legal delivery into a portfolio of national and international corporations by a team of highly experienced employment lawyers. Provision of strategic contentious and non-contentious solutions at all levels.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employee Relations /Trade Union issues
- Discrimination
- Redundancy/restructure
- Dispute resolution
- Senior Management training
Jake Colbourne
Legal Adviser
Jake Colbourne
Legal Adviser
Jake has over five years’ experience delivering pragmatic employment law advice to a broad range of Make UK members. He also brings valuable in-house HR management experience from the manufacturing sector, equipping him with practical insight into complex restructures, organisational change, and employee relations.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Unfair dismissal
- Contracts of employment
- Settlement agreements
- Restructures
- Change management
Jennifer Holmes
Senior Legal Adviser
Jennifer Holmes
Senior Legal Adviser
Jenny has 20 years’ experience in providing HR & legal advice with a proven track record of litigation risk management for her clients.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Containing Legal risk;
- Working with Trade Unions;
- HR Interventions for problem solving;
- Managing workplace conflict;
- Understanding of operational and business perspectives of employers due to having held senior management roles in a number of manufacturing businesses
Jillian Cox
Senior Legal Adviser
Peter Brady
Senior Legal Adviser
Peter Brady
Senior Legal Adviser
Peter is a Solicitor with 5 years’ post-qualification experience, advising employers on all aspects of employment law and bringing a balanced perspective from his background representing both claimants and respondents.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal representation
- TUPE
- Redundancy and restructuring
- Settlement agreements
- Employment law advice and training
Priya Nainthy
Lead Lawyer Key Accounts
Priya Nainthy
Lead Lawyer Key Accounts
Priya has over 25 years’ experience of assisting employees and employers on a full range of employment law matters and currently assists our Key Accounts in managing their employees.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Absence management
- Disciplinary issues
- TUPE
- Settlement discussions
- Training
Robert Kellaway
Senior Legal Adviser
Robert Kellaway
Senior Legal Adviser
Rob provides advice to employers in all aspects of employment law. Clients value Rob’s personable approach and his commercial, considered, and clear legal advice.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment law
- Employment tribunal representation
- Employee relations
- HR contracts and policies
- Staff training
Steve Willey
Senior Legal Adviser
Steve Willey
Senior Legal Adviser
Steve qualified as a solicitor more than 14 years ago and has wide experience of offering employment advice to both multi-national and regional employers
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal representation
- Employment Appeal Tribunal representation
- TUPE
- Discrimination
- Senior executive settlements
Tania Vittorio
Senior Legal Adviser
Tania Vittorio
Senior Legal Adviser
Tanya has over 25 years of experience in defending Employment Tribunal claims for businesses and advising on complex ER and HR issues.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Tribunal representation;
- Negotiating settlements and ACAS EC matters;
- Handling/advising on Trade Union issues and negotiations;
- Employee Relations;
- HR policies
Employment Law Team, South
Eleanor Cowen
Solicitor and Head of Employment Law, South
Eleanor Cowen
Solicitor and Head of Employment Law, South
Eleanor leads the Southern team and provides expert employment law advice to regional and national companies. Her work spans both contentious and non-contentious matters, including contractual changes, discrimination, TUPE and redundancy.
She recently secured excellent outcomes for two multinational clients in complex employment tribunal hearings. Known for her pragmatic and commercially-focused approach, Eleanor is often described by clients as another member of the team.
She has a particular passion for training, delivering sessions tailored to all levels - from shop floor to boardroom. Eleanor began her legal career in family law at a large regional firm before qualifying into employment litigation.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Unfair dismissal
- Discrimination
- Complex grievances
- Restructures
- Delivering training
Bhupinder Devgon
Senior Legal Adviser
Caroline Crampton-Thomas
Senior Legal Adviser
Caroline Crampton-Thomas
Senior Legal Adviser
Caroline qualified as a Barrister in 1999 and as a Solicitor in 2003. A seasoned specialist in Employee Relations and Employment Law, advising SMEs, FTSE 500 companies and Global Organisations on non-contentious and contentious matters.
- TUPE transactions, business mergers, and acquisitions
- Redundancy and business restructuring
- Discrimination
- Whistleblowing
- Civil Court proceedings and Employment Tribunal Representation
James Collier
Senior Legal Adviser
James Collier
Senior Legal Adviser
James, an employment law specialist since 2010, defends tribunal claims and delivers HR training at Make UK, drawing on experience as a Senior Associate in private practice and a decade handling discrimination and whistleblowing cases at a major trade union.
- Discrimination
- Unfair dismissal
- Settlement Agreements
- Workplace disputes
- Delivering training
Leah Shaw
Senior Legal Adviser
Leah Shaw
Senior Legal Adviser
Leah, an employment law specialist since 2009, advises SMEs and PLCs on internal processes and tribunal representation, while also delivering training informed by her extensive experience.
- Discrimination
- Dismissals
- Grievances
- Redundancy and restructuring
- Employment Tribunal representation
Tom Brennan
Senior Legal Adviser
Tom Brennan
Senior Legal Adviser
Tom, an expert in trade union matters, manages complex employment tribunal cases and advises on contentious workplace issues, including successfully defending multiple Statutory Trade Union Recognition claims. With 33 years’ service, Tom has worked in the HR field with a number of organisations since 1978.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Dealing with Trade Unions
- Unfair dismissal
- Discrimination
- Grievance Handling
- Restructure and Redundancy Handling
Employment Law Knowledge Team
Lucy Atherton
Solicitor and Head of Employment Law Knowledge Team
Lucy Atherton
Solicitor and Head of Employment Law Knowledge Team
Lucy heads Make UK’s Employment Law Knowledge Team, which provides technical support and expertise to our national team on employment law. She also represents the interests of Make UK’s member companies to Government on employment law issues. Lucy previously worked at ‘magic circle’ law firm, Linklaters. She is a qualified solicitor with more than 25 years’ experience.
- Employment law
- Business immigration
- Employment Policy
- Data Protection
- Employee relations
HR Consultancy & Training
Jenny Rimell
Head of HR Consultancy and Training
Jenny Rimell
Head of HR Consultancy and Training
Jenny brings 24 years’ experience across the HR profession, having begun her career at grass-roots level before progressing through senior HR leadership roles and establishing a successful consultancy. Her work focuses on employment law and commercial HR, supporting organisations to make confident, people-centred decisions. Underpinned by strong employment law knowledge, she helps businesses balance people, performance and commercial outcomes. Known for combining tactical HR delivery with strategic insight, Jenny challenges assumptions and holds leaders to account to ensure decisions benefit teams, clients and the wider organisation, enabling meaningful and sustainable growth.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Performance Engagement
- TUPE
- Employee Relations
- Restructure & Redundancy
- Business Transformation
Donna Chadbone
Senior HR Consultant
Donna Chadbone
Senior HR Consultant
Donna has 20 years’ HR generalist experience and supports clients across the employee life cycle with recruitment, policy development, employee relations, change management and training.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employee relations
- Performance Management
- Restructuring, Redundancy and TUPE
- Training
- Recruitment
Graeme Drewery
Senior HR Consultant, MCIPID
Graeme Drewery
Senior HR Consultant, MCIPID
Graeme has over 13 years’ HR experience across multiple sectors and supports clients with the development of commercially-focussed business solutions.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- HR Strategy Formulation & Implementation
- Employee relations
- Pay & Reward
- Training & Development
- HR Projects & Change Management
Jackie Painter
Senior HR Consultant, MCIPID
Jackie Painter
Senior HR Consultant, MCIPID
Jackie brings over 20 years of Senior Level HR Expertise to the HR Consultancy Team, with extensive experience in delivering innovative people solutions, strategy and transformational change.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Strategy and Visioning (Formation and Implementation)
- Equality Diversity and Inclusion
- Cultural Change and Transformation
- Restructures and Organisational Development
- People Solutions
Jo Boyd
Senior HR Consultant
Jo Boyd
Senior HR Consultant
Jo’s HR career as a generalist has spanned over 25 years, with experience in engineering, manufacturing and STEM organisations. Jo is a member of the British Psychological Society, with a keen interest in understanding how we interact with the world and how this plays out at work.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- HR strategy development and implementation
- Learning and development (including coaching)
- Organisational change (organisation design, redundancy and restructuring, culture / HR change projects and HRIS implementation)
- Employee Relations
- Performance management
Jo Hendrie
Senior HR Consultant, MCIPID
Jo Hendrie
Senior HR Consultant, MCIPID
Jo has 25 years' experience of partnering with clients to support them with the engagement and development of their employees.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Outplacement & career coaching
- Training, coaching and development
- Recruitment and selection including psychometric testing
- Job analysis and evaluation
- Competency frameworks
Judith Chapman
Senior HR Consultant (CIPD)
Judith Chapman
Senior HR Consultant (CIPD)
Judith has over 40 years' experience in the profession, gained across multiple sectors supporting clients with the development of pragmatic, commercially-focused business solutions to effectively manage risks.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- HR strategy (formation and implementation)
- Learning and Development (including strategy and design and delivery to all levels)
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Employee relations
- Performance management
Lisa Lawrence
Senior HR Consultant
Lisa Lawrence
Senior HR Consultant
Lisa has over 25 years’ HR experience across various industries, within strategic partnering roles which focus on the development of solutions that foster business and employee growth, across the spectrum of activities within the employment lifecycle.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Strategy and solutions
- Change and transformation
- Employee relations
- HR policy, procedures and process
- Employee leadership development and coaching
Margaret Renshaw
Senior HR Consultant, FCIPD
Margaret Renshaw
Senior HR Consultant, FCIPD
Margaret has over 30 years' cross-sector experience, delivering strategic employee relations solutions that drive change, reduce risk, and boost workforce engagement.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- HR strategy
- Organisational change - TUPE, Changing Terms and Conditions, Redundancy and Restructuring – from strategy to implantation working with TU’s
- Mediation
- Employee relations - positive intervention to conflict management
- Training design and delivery: from Directors to operational teams
National Advice Line Team
Louisa Sedgwick
Legal Executive and National Advice Line Lead
Louisa Sedgwick
Legal Executive and National Advice Line Lead
Louisa has worked for Make UK for over 20 years. Louisa manages the National Adviceline and also advises on all aspects of Employment Law.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Absence management
- Disciplinary and grievance
- Redundancies
- Unfair dismissal
- Contracts of employment
Caroline Clarke
Legal Adviser
Caroline Clarke
Legal Adviser
Caroline is an experienced Solicitor who has worked as a dedicated employment specialist since 2000. She joined Make UK in 2008 and prior to working at Make UK, Caroline worked for a nationwide Trade Union law firm and large commercial practices. She has excellent experience of advising across all aspects of employment litigation and advice work.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Managing disability in the workplace
- Managing sickness absence – both long term and short term
- Disciplinary and grievance procedures
- Family rights and flexible working
- Redundancies
Harjit Bhandal
Legal Adviser
Harjit Bhandal
Legal Adviser
With over 20 years experience of advising employers, Harjit is well placed to help members with all aspects of employee issues, ranging from large scale redundancies, changes to terms and conditions and TUPE transfers, through to individual employee issues such as absence management, disciplinary and grievances and advising on contracts and policies.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- TUPE transfers
- Absence management
- Redundancies
- Restrictive covenants
- Discipline and Grievance
John Keighery
Legal Adviser
John Keighery
Legal Adviser
John brings over 35 years’ HR & People development experience in the private sector including Manufacturing, Retail and Leisure industries, all of which enables a pragmatic, commercial approach to HR/Legal issues.
Top 5 areas of specialism:
- Employment Law
- Employee Relations
- Training and Development
- Absence management
- Business Restructuring
Satvinder Kainth
Legal Adviser