Employment · Employment fee-earner advising employees
Review a settlement agreement before the employee signs
An employee has seven days to take independent advice on a settlement agreement offering four months' pay. The review checks what is being waived, what is taxable, what the reference actually promises and which restrictions outlive the agreement.
- Agents
- Employment
- First draft
- A full advice note comes back from one run, ready for the advice meeting the same day.
The problem
Step 01 of 05
Open a matter for the individual
Client is the employee, jurisdiction England and Wales, with the employer's deadline for signature recorded as a key date.
Project Halcyon: SPA warranties and disclosure
Buy-side warranty review, disclosure analysis and cited due-diligence grid.
- Client
- Halcyon Bidco Ltd
- Reference
- WC-2026-0412
- Practice area
- Corporate / M&A
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Responsible partner
- E. Vance
No conflict check on file.Chat, on this matter
Compare warranties with the disclosure letter.
Three high-priority exceptions require action: the unregistered charge, the change-of-control right and the tribunal claim.
Send a message… (@ to mention tools)BalancedPrepare for- 25 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Chat
- 21 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Run · completed · 560 credits
- 18 Aug
Project Halcyon: Disclosure Letter
Document · indexed
- 16 Aug
Project Halcyon: Share Purchase Agreement
Document · indexed
- 4 Aug
Matter opened
Opened
Step 02 of 05
Run the employee-side review
Prepare for: Client Update, Deliver as: PDF. The instruction states the client is the employee, has limited bargaining power and needs plain English on what they are giving up.
Agent
Jurisdiction
Prepare for
Deliver as
Instruction
What should the agent look for?Documents
Drop a contract, or pick one from the matter
Also on the matter
- Offer_letter_v3.pdf2 pages
- Staff_handbook_2025.docx61 pages
- Board_minute_14_Aug.pdf3 pages
Platform model · zero data retention · audit register onStep 03 of 05
Read the waiver analysis
Claims are grouped into those validly waived, those the agreement cannot waive, and one category the employee may not know they have, arising from an outstanding bonus.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 04 of 05
Check the money
Each payment is analysed for tax treatment, with the notice pay position stated separately from the compensation element and the indemnity read as it is drafted.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 05 of 05
Take the points to ask for
Action items list the four amendments worth requesting, ranked by how likely the employer is to agree, so the client can choose which battles to have.
Replace the UK/Ireland/EU non-compete with a 3 to 6 month restriction tied to competing corporate-law work.
Replace blanket data consent with a lawful-basis clause and a separate monitoring notice.
Remove the five-day carry-over cap and reference the statutory carry-over rules.
Narrow the client non-solicit to clients dealt with in the final 12 months.
Add an explicit working-time opt-out withdrawal mechanism.
Confirm the bonus clause states the discretion is exercised in good faith.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- Claims separated into validly waived, incapable of waiver, and the one the employee may not realise they hold.
- A payment-by-payment tax analysis with the notice element treated separately from compensation.
- A read of the reference clause and the covenants that continue after termination.
- Four amendments to request, ranked by likelihood of acceptance.
Authorities it checks
- Employment Rights Act 1996, s 203
- Equality Act 2010, s 147
What it does not do
- It does not sign the adviser's certificate. A named solicitor advises the client and signs.
- It does not give tax advice on the client's overall position; it reads the agreement's own treatment and flags where it is optimistic.
- It does not negotiate the amendments with the employer.