Sophie Whitbread

She has a particular focus on the higher education sector, with universities and a number of the Cambridge and Oxford colleges amongst her clients. Sophie also has a growing practice acting for clients in the charities sector and, given her location in Cambridge, has many clients in the technology sector, with particular experience of advising university spin-out companies. She provides commercial and pragmatic advice on day-to-day employment matters, including redundancies and restructuring, TUPE, restrictive covenants and discrimination. Sophie is frequently called upon to deal with queries in very specialist areas of employment law including, for example, the evolving legal position around holiday pay.

On the contentious side, Sophie regularly handles complex Employment Tribunal matters, particularly discrimination and whistleblowing claims. She provides strategic advice on the claim’s progress and seeks to settle claims where it makes commercial sense to do so, including through the use of judicial mediation. Sophie also has experience in the appellate courts and the High Court, provides advice to senior employees, and has negotiated significant settlement agreements for a number of individual clients.