Recent Work

Expansion throughout our offices reinforces our ability to keep clients fully informed on current and future developments.

This year we continued to expand the employment services at Maclay Murray & Spens. We established a permanent presence in our Aberdeen office, and now have lawyers in all four of the firm's UK offices. This enables us to provide advice, representation and consultancy services to clients up and down the country.

Employment law has seen a number of significant changes this year. Important decisions have been taken on compensation and extension of discrimination legislation to cover religion or belief and sexual orientation.There has also been further progress on business transfer and information and consultation regulations which will come into force next year. We continue to keep clients fully informed of these developments, through regular training sessions, communiqués, and our free fortnightly email update, Lawline. The team has represented clients in tribunals and the higher courts, as well as in more unusual surroundings such as police discipline and appeals tribunals and the Scottish Football Association's appeal panel.

Our Pensions team in Scotland and London is at the forefront of new developments, and has advised a number of clients on high profile Bradstock agreements and on issues arising from the need to change pension provisions in the face of funding shortfalls. As pension deficits become increasingly common it is more important than ever to fully consider pensions issues when planning a bid, restructuring or making any corporate transaction.

Our Employee Share Schemes team has also been busy during the year, particularly in light of the significant changes to legislation governing the taxation of employment-related shares and new Inland Revenue reporting requirements. We acted in setting up or reviewing employee share schemes for a wide range of clients, and expanded our service to provide advice on remuneration tax planning.

We continue to act for a broad range of clients: major commercial and financial services companies, technology companies, employment agencies and businesses, local authorities, police forces, housing associations and trade unions, including the Educational Institute of Scotland.

One of our strengths remains the partnership working arrangements we have in place, not only with other expert services within the firm but also with Law At Work, which provides us with HR consultancy and training services. Internationally, we have drawn on the expertise available to us through our membership of Lex Mundi and the Employment Law Alliance to advise clients in places such as Bermuda, Sweden, Tokyo and Los Angeles.