Deals and Cases : Practice Area : Employment

We act primarily for large employer companies and senior executives. We also receive instructions from a number of leading UK law firms where their UK clients have Jersey and Guernsey law issues.

Given the sensitive nature of much of our work, nearly all of the employment work undertaken by the team is highly confidential. As a result, we can only give general information on the nature of advice we have provided. The information below highlights advice we have given which is of particular interest.

• Carey Olsen acted for Lloyds Banking Group on the Jersey law aspects of the sale its Employee Equity Solutions (EES) business to Computershare for a cash consideration. Given the complex nature of this transaction the firm had to put together a team of lawyers from a number of different practice groups within the firm - corporate, fiduciary, regulatory ,tax and employment. This was a major, if not the major, corporate transaction in the Island in 2009, the target company being a significant employer with a head count of over 400 staff based both in Jersey and in the United Kingdom.
• Advising SandpiperCI Limited, the largest private employer in the Channel Islands, on various employment related matters.
• Advising a large global bank on the legal issues arising from its pre-employment screening process in both Jersey and Guernsey, including drafting template offer letters, considering data protection issues and advising on the use of criminal records checks.
• Negotiating valuable compromise agreements for three senior executives who were leaving the same employer at the same time, including advising them in relation to their share options and related benefits.
• Advising a major financial services employer on the legal issues surrounding its contractual relationship with employment agencies and the termination of agency worker arrangements.
• Advising a number of start-up companies on Jersey employment law and related issues such as obtaining housing licences and governmental licences to operate in the Island.
• Advising a local company in relation to the legal issues arising from the recruitment of a number of staff from a competitor, and advising the individuals concerned on the enforceability of their restrictive covenants.