Market Report: Employment – The toughest gig in town

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Market Report: Employment – The toughest gig in town

As #MeToo continues to shine an uncomfortable light on many industries, Anna Cole-Bailey looks at how its influence on employment litigation in firms is likely to come into full swing in 2019

For Sarah Henchoz, a partner in Allen and Overy’s employment team who has hailed 2019 ‘the year of culture’ for big employers, her department has seen a spike in advisory work following the emergence of the #MeToo scandal in late 2017: ‘The first week back in January 2018 we received six separate new matters all relating to sexual harassment or misconduct,’ she says. Continue reading “Market Report: Employment – The toughest gig in town”

Market Report: Mediation – Coming of age

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Market Report: Mediation – Coming of age

Twenty years on since the Woolf Reforms, Dominic Carman assesses mediation’s slow but steady march to the disputes mainstream

Mediation is big business. That much is evident from the 2018 Mediation Audit published biennially by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). It confirms that there were 12,000 mediations – up by 20% in two years and double the number in 2010 – involving £11.5bn in aggregate dispute value. Of these, 7,500 were ad hoc referrals while 4,500 originated from organised mediation schemes, such as NHS Resolution and the Court of Appeal scheme. Continue reading “Market Report: Mediation – Coming of age”