People and reward

Helping our clients get the best out of their people.

People and reward global brochure

WorkLife 2.0

Whistleblowing survey 2020 - worrying signs for speak up culture

Workplace change – anticipating people and reward challenges.

The workplace is evolving fast. Employers are being faced with advancing technology, the increasing impact of AI and digitalisation on the traditional workforce, the changing demands of millennials on employers, new ways of working and the “agile advance”. Added to this is the vital importance of having the right culture in the workplace, to minimise legal risk and regulator scrutiny. As companies look to engage in ever-more transformational M&A, an early focus on post deal workforce integration to ensure long-term success is critical.

Our team of HR lawyers works side by side with our clients to deliver excellent practical, innovative and commercial legal advice across all the full spectrum of these challenges.

We want to provide the best of our team to you, whatever the HR legal challenge you face.

Client successes

Advising AB InBev, the world’s largest beer-maker, on the employment, pensions and benefits aspects of its £78.4bn combination with SABMiller, completed in October 2016.

The transaction involved 21 Freshfields offices, covered countries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, and affected over 200,000 employees at the two companies.

We advised AB InBev on everything from the drafting of the core deal documentation and the communications with SABMiller employees and option-holders, to interactions with the UK Takeover Panel, to consultation processes with employee representative bodies, to the implications of the transaction for AB InBev’s UK pension schemes.

This deal demonstrates our unique ability to provide cross-border advice on all the HR and employment law aspects of complex and high-value corporate transactions.

Working with Blackstone Group International Partners on employment and partnership issues, including advising on the handling of disciplinary and grievance procedures, redundancies, performance-improvement processes, settlement agreements, employment taxation and employee handbooks.

This matter shows our ability to be highly flexible in meeting the demands of a fast-paced business with varied and complex arrangements, whether dealing with problems as they may arise or spotting potential risks before they develop into issues.

Our very responsive approach and provision of solutions-based advice allows us to support our client in its decision making processes and the implementation of those decisions.

Advising Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) on its asset swap with Sanofi, involving the sale by Sanofi to BI of its €11.4bn animal health business and the sale by BI to Sanofi of its €6.7bn consumer healthcare business.

The transaction structure was complex, varied between countries, and included the transfer and assumption of pensions liabilities in at least 40 jurisdictions (including bulk transfer arrangements certain countries).

In addition to leading on the negotiation of the core transaction documents and on employee information and consultation requirements, we also advised BI on the proposed treatment of pensions issues across the globe.

We were able to draw on unparalleled levels of experience for this transaction, having advised Novartis on its multibillion-pound four-part transaction with GSK in 2014 and 2015, another pharmaceuticals transaction involving complex and bespoke employment and pensions issues across a large number of jurisdictions.

Advising an investment bank on employment issues arising from its internal investigation into certain transactions.

The bank’s internal investigations had found that there may have been breaches of its policies and/or misconduct on the part of a number of its current and former employees in relation to the transactions.

Our employment team advised the bank on:

how to suspend and then apply forfeiture to the deferred compensation held by individuals involved in the transactions; and
bringing civil actions against certain individuals for breach of contract and/or breach of fiduciary duties they owed to the bank.

In addition we advised on best practice and legal risks, drafted suspension and forfeiture grounds, and prepared briefings and memoranda for the panels and the bank’s senior management.

Our employment team has advised the bank on a number of other investigations, including:

market-wide allegations of manipulation and other improper conduct by traders; and
alleged breaches of regulatory requirements in a branch of the bank.

Further it gave follow-up advice in relation to another investigation involving a number of jurisdictions.

The team’s expertise in the incentives field meant it could advise on the full range of employee sanctions in each of these investigations.

Advising Kodak on the operation of an international incentive plan to employees resident outside the US, including the grant of equity awards thereunder.

Advising Deutscher Fussball Bund (the German Football Association) on a major investigation.

We advised the German Football Association on the various employment and data protection law questions that arose from the headline-catching internal investigation into the award of the 2006 Fifa World Cup to the country.