Practice Experience
Oliver Brettle concentrates on providing both contentious and non-contentious employment law advice in a wide variety of contexts with an emphasis on employment issues for employers.  He has represented a number of major employers in complex and large matters including industrial disputes and employment-related litigation.

In contentious matters, Oliver has advised on matters such as sex discrimination claims, race discrimination claims and mass unfair dismissal claims as well as several collective employment claims relating to both business transfers and mass redundancies. Oliver has acted on several of the UK’s leading cases in the area of restrictive covenants, misuse of confidential information by employees and enforcement of ‘garden leave’ clauses.

In non-contentious matters, Oliver has advised on drafting executive service agreements at the board level (including those for FTSE companies), the introduction of new terms and conditions of employment for large workforces, several large redundancy (RIF) programmes, union derecognition/recognition matters and collective employment issues generally.  Oliver is particularly familiar with the employment issues that arise in corporate transactions such as IPOs, management buyouts, share sales, business sales and outsourcing.  Recently, Oliver has advised on the employment law aspects of large-scale, multi jurisdictional transactions from both the perspective of the purchaser and of the seller including compliance with relevant employee consultation requirements. Oliver has a highly rated expertise in cross-border employment law issues including regulation of cross border secondments, dual contracts and enforcement of contractual obligations across national borders.

Oliver is a regular contributor to leading employment law and human resource publications as well as a frequent speaker at external and client employment seminars.

Examples of recent representations in non-contentious matters:

• Acted for a major outsourced service provider on all employment issues associated with a series of substantial outsourcings both in the UK and on a cross border basis;
• Advised on the employment aspects of three substantial multi-national transactions for one of White & Case’s principal clients;
• Advised on new employment contracts for several major employers including detailed consideration of implications of multi-national employment;
• Acted on the dismissal of the chief executives/senior employees for numerous listed companies, major private companies and foreign owned UK subsidiaries; and
• Advised on the employment law aspects of a multi-jurisdiction IT outsourcing for a major US/UK employer.

Examples of recent representations in contentious matters:

• Advised a major employer on a multi-million failure to inform and consult claim brought by a trade union upon the closure of the workplace;
• Advised on the contentious issues resulting from a business transfer coupled with in excess of 100 redundancies;
• Settled, at no cost to the parent company, mass claims brought against the parent company by employees of a subsidiary, which subsidiary was insolvent;
• Successfully defended employers against sexual harassment/discrimination and race discrimination claims;
• Successfully enforced the garden leave obligations of a chief executive for a company in administration - a legal first in the UK;
• Advised a leading UK professional services firm in its ligation against another as a result of a “team move” and misuse of confidential information. Successfully injuncted the team and achieved a complete return of all confidential information and substantial damages.

Bars and Courts
Admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, 1993

Education
M.A. (Jurisprudence (law)), Christ Church, Oxford University 1990

Publications
“Towards Equality and Diversity”, Company Secretary’s Review – January 2002
“The Employment Bill 2001”, Tolley’s Employment Law-Line Newsletter – January 2002
“Happy Families Game Plays On”, Employment Law Journal, number 27 – February 2002
“Stressed Out, No Payout?” – Croner.CCH, Personnel Management Newsletter – March 2002
“HSC Investigation Criteria”, Tolley’s Employment Law-Line Newsletter – March 2002
“Works Councils In Action”, Employment Law Journal – April 2002
“National Works Councils Round-Up on the Directive”, Tolley’s Employment Law-Line Newsletter (co-author) – May 2002
“The CAC –its Role and Decisions”, Employment Law Journal – May 2002
“Dismissals and Grievances under the Employment Bill”, Croner.CCH Personnel Management Newsletter – June 2002
“PHI – Not Worth The Bother?”, Tolley’s Employment Law-Line Newsletter – June 2002
“Flexible Employees” – Changing Times, PLC – September 2002
“Avoiding Unfair Dismissal Claims” – Employment Law Journal –  September 2002
“TUPE Round-up”, Croner.CCH Personnel Management Newsletter – February 2003
“Enhanced Redundancy Payments”, Tolley’s Employment Law-Line Newsletter – February 2003
“Outsourcing Without the Jargon”, Employment Law Journal – February 2003
“Employment Contract Overview”, Croner.CCH, Personnel Management Newsletter – May 2003
“Time Off For Union Duties”, Company Secretary’s Review (co-author) – June 2003
“Contract Negotiation: TUPE”, Essential Report – June 2003
“Employee Bonuses – Choosing the Right Scheme”, Employment Law Journal (co-author) – July/August 2003
“Monitoring Sickness Absence” – Croner.CCH, Personnel Management Newsletter (co-author) – September 2003
“The last bastion falls” – Employment Law Journal – September 2003
“Data Protection Code:  Part 3” – Croner.CCH Personnel Management Newsletter – November 2003
“Changing your bonus scheme” – Tolley's Employment Law-Line – November 2003
“New Year's Resolutions” – Company's Secretary's Review (co author) – December 2003
“The Commercial Agents Regulations – ten years on” – Employment Law Journal (co-author) – December 2003/January 2004
“Subject access to be restricted?” – Croner.CCH Personnel Management Newsletter – March 2004
“Implied terms – just how far will the courts go?” – Croner.CCH Personnel Management Newsletter – 2004
“TUPE – on the transfer trail” – Employment & Human Resources – 2004
“Staying sensitive to workers’ health records” – Privacy Laws & Business – UK Newsletter – July/August 2004
“Limits on privilege covering without prejudice rules and discovery of legal advice/the position of in-house lawyers’ advice” – Tolley’s Employment Law Newsletter – August 2004
“The HR manager’s role in a company acquisition” – Personnel Management Newsletter – November 2004
“Moving closer to recognition of Binding Corporate Rules?” – Privacy Laws and Business – November/December 2004
“Pre-existing information and consultation agreements” – Tolley’s Employment Law Newsletter – January 2005
“National Works Councils” – Personnel Management Newsletter – March 2005
“The shrinking pensions exemption” – Employment Law Journal – April 2005
“Data Protection – Binding Corporate Rules” – Personnel Management Newsletter – June 2005
“Transferring employee data: a case study”, Data Protection Law & Policy, January 2006
“Raising a grievance”, Personnel Management Newsletter, 21 February 2006
“TUPE 2006”, Company Secretary’s Review (co-author), 19 April 2006
“Garden leave: protection and enforcement”, Personnel Management Newsletter, 20 April 2006
“Company Law Reform Bill: members’ rights, derivative actions”, TUPE Regulations 2006/News (co-author), April 2006
“Commercial Agents”, Personnel Management Newsletter (co-author), 7 July 2006
“Smoking at work: issues for employers”, Personnel Management Newsletter, 6 October 2006
“Performance conditions and their effect on discretion”, Employment Law Journal (co-author), November 2006
“An unequal union”, Employment Law Journal, December 2006/January 2007
“Garden leave: protection and enforcement”, Croner, February 2007
“Prospectus problems”, Employment Law Journal (co-author), April 2007
“Reasonable adjustments for disabled employees”, Personnel Management Newsletter, 21 May 2007
“Restricting employees’ activities”, Employment Law Journal, June 2007
“Mainstream Properties v Young: implications for employers”, Croners Personnel Management Newsletter (co-author), 21 August 2007
“The EEAR: Not Your Uncle Sam’s ADEA” (co-author), Legal Report, October-November 2007
“The EU Acquired Rights Directive and its impact on business transfers”, Benefits & Compensation International, November 2007
“EAT extends rules on territorial jurisdiction”, Employment Law Journal, March 2008
"Ill-health retirement and unfair dismissal", Personnel Management Newsletter, May 2008
"Enhanced redundancy schemes and age discrimination", Tolley's Employment Law Newsletter, September 2008
"Bonus plans - forfeiture and restrictive covenants", Personnel Management Newsletter, November 2008

Citizenship
British