Gary Smith is an Employment Solicitor based in our Bishop’s Stortford office. He has a broad range of experience acting for employers from small start up companies to large PLCs in all forms of employment law work and has a real understanding of clients’ business requirements. Gary provides strategic and commercial advice tailored to the client’s desired outcomes.
As well as being able to advise on various employment disputes and Tribunal and High Court litigation, he regularly assists clients with corporate transactions including the effect of TUPE on company mergers and acquisitions. Gary has extensive experience in litigating high value discrimination and complex dismissal claims.
Gary is experienced in drafting and enforcing restrictive covenants and preparing all appropriate employment documentation. Gary also frequently presents public seminars and in house training on employment law.
Gary is recommended in the Legal 500 for his work on handling all forms of employment litigation in the public and private sectors with a particular focus on discrimination and whistleblowing claims. He is described as ‘accessible, professional, listens, and has excellent knowledge and a great sense of humour‘. A business owner is quoted as saying that Gary ‘always puts himself in the shoes of the client and is able to quickly address the business issues at hand, rather than just say what the law says. This type of advice is invaluable’. Gary has also been ranked as a ‘Leading Individual’ in Employment Law in Chambers UK – ‘He was praised for his prompt, clear and considered advice, and his ability to provide commercial solutions”.
Gary joined Nockolds in 2007 and is a Partner in our Employment Law Team. Before joining the firm Gary studied law at the University of Kent.
Gary is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the Hertfordshire Law Society Council and is also a governor at Furneux Pelham primary school.
Recent experience includes:
- Acting for an employer in relation to a successful TUPE transfer of staff with total liabilities of in excess of £16million.
- Acting for a Respondent in a claim for sexual harassment and whistleblowing worth approximately £280,000.
- Acting for an employer in dismissing the HR Manager for theft from the business and avoiding a claim which could have risen to £150,000.
- Acting for an employer in securing strike out of a claim brought by a former employee dismissed for gross misconduct.
- Successfully defending an Employment Tribunal claim in the care sector related to working time and non-payment of minimum wage worth £250,000+.