Client Services | Brown and Co Solicitors Telephone 0203 4680924

Brown and Co Solicitors Telephone 0203 4680924

Brown & Co. Client Services

Brown and Co specialise in the following - Employment Law and Local Government Law

Employment law for employers and employees

We specialise in employment law for both employers and employees. Our lawyers have a wealth of experience in advising organisations and individuals and are reputed for getting the best outcomes for our clients. We offer advice and representation to employers in relation to their employment matters.

Workplace Mediation

Brown and Co. has an experienced and qualified mediator able to mediate in workplace disputes. If required we could come in and provide this type of support.

Organisational support

Many organisations require support to develop or strengthen processes which lead to or can avoid employment disputes arising in the first place. With our considerable in house expertise we are well placed to come in to your organisation and review systems, policies procedures and processes and recommend how they can be strengthened and made ‘fit for purpose’.

Training And Development

We can also provide bespoke training on any employment law issue as required. Call us today to discuss your needs.

Employees

We offer advice and representation to individuals with a dispute with their current, past or potential employer. Our areas of coverage typically include the following:

Unfair Dismissal
Discrimination (race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief)
Bullying and Harassment
Redundancy
TUPE issues
Breach of Contract Claims
Wage Claims
And More

Career planning, coaching and mentoring services

Many employees going through a dispute with their employee will experience a loss of confidence and esteem. They may also need practical support to rethink their career goals and support to set new goals and achieve them. We are able to place employees with an experienced mentor/coach from a reputable independent organisation who will help the client identify where they are in their career, where they want to get to and how best to achieve this. This arrangement is often part of a settlement package paid for by the employer. If this is of interest to you as an employer or employee talk to us today.

Our Fees

We offer a range of payment options according to the type of service clients prefer according to their needs as explained below:

Case specific advice and representation

We can advise and represent organisations including full representation at the employment tribunal and beyond. We generally charge a competitive hourly fee for this service

Ongoing support to organisations

For some corporate clients they wish to access employment advice on an ongoing basis as queries arise in house. We offer a retainer system in which clients pay a set sum over the year entitling the client to access advice when required. Where purchased hours are not used up in a given year we can carry over a set number of hours to a future year.

Specific projects

Where instructed to do a particular piece of work such as mediation, reviewing internal procedures or training we will discuss the most suitable form of remuneration.

Individuals

There are a number of options for an individual seeking legal help to pay for our services which include:

payment themselves. In this case the client pays for the service out of their own resources. We appreciate that legal fees can be prohibitive. You will find that our rates are among the most competitive. We also have different ways to enable you to stay in control of how much you spend on your case including regular updates on costs incurred, setting a budget for the case which can only be exceeded with your approval and early pursuit of settlement where appropriate
conditional fee arrangement – in this arrangement you only pay if we win or settle your case. We will make an assessment at the outset as to whether we feel your case is likely to succeed so you only embark on a case which we feel is worth pursuing
insurance. Some insurance schemes pay for legal advice and support. We will help you to identify whether the proposed work is covered by any appropriate insurance

Local Government Law

This is a critical time for local government. While the government is handing down to local authorities a ‘general power of competence’ to do what is needed in their areas there is a a dramatic reduction in funding to local authorities leading to cuts to services and backroom staff. All this at a time when the coalition government espouses the ‘big society’ agenda. Brown and Co understands the challenges facing local authorities and the difficult choices it needs to make and is well placed to advise and support local authorities.

Brown and Co. provides advice and support to local authorities on the following local government issues:

member investigations and councillor Code of Conduct issues
advice on governance and constitutional issues
advice and support on governance issues pertaining to local authority functions such as partnerships
judicial review of local authority decision

We have extensive experience of supporting local authorities and understand the issues within and external to local authorities.

Management of external costs is crucial to in house legal teams. We are confident that authorities will find our different payment arrangements suitable to their needs and justifiable to other stakeholders in the organisation.

We are also able to enter into useful fee arrangements that suit the client needs and can provide timely reports on cost information to facilitate management of legal budgets in house.