Delivering employment expertise to clients in litigation, corporate support, and employer advisory contexts, Stephens Scown’s Employment team and HRExpress service has gained national recognition with a shortlisting in the 2025 Personnel Today Awards.
Headline prize
The team has been nominated as Employment Law Firm of the Year, with the awards celebrating the very best achievements in the profession.
Bringing together the best in the HR and employment industries, the awards have been running for more than two decades to demonstrate and showcase great employment practices from across the UK.
Broadly operating over three sub-specialisms of litigation, corporate support, and employer support, Stephens Scown’s Employment team has strong employee practices alongside those specialisms.
Tier One ranked by Legal 500, the team is known for its expertise in creating great employee engagement and for practising ethical HR, something increasingly important to purpose-driven and values-based clients.
Unique offerings
Part of the reason for the team’s shortlisting success comes from four aspects of its offering which stand them apart from competitors:
- In-house HR Manager, Mark Roby, offers ‘boots on the ground’ support, working with clients on grievance and disciplinary investigations, hearings and appeals, on-site training, redundancy support and mentoring.
- The HRExpress (HRE) service, through which advice is provided by a dedicated team, headed by Hazel Sanders and led on by Chris Morse in Cornwall.
- Specialist immigration support. Driven by the need for market sector expertise on immigration matters, the team advises on issues such as sponsor licences, right to work checks, and overseas recruitment.
- Extensive knowledge of regulatory matters such as CQC, NHS and Charity Commission provisions which often come into play when advising charities and healthcare businesses on complex HR situations, for example anonymous whistleblowing complaints.
It’s that range of services and specialisms that helped secure the team a place on the shortlist. Personnel Today Editor, Rob Moss, said, “This year we were inundated with entries that displayed a high level of quality, so making it through to the shortlist is something to be very proud of.”
Partner and Head of the Employment team, Ellie Hibberd said, “I am absolutely thrilled that the team has been named in the shortlist for Employment Law Firm of the Year. We’re extremely proud of the very high-quality work we handle within our team, including for well-known, high-profile clients, and it’s fantastic to see that being recognised on a national stage. The team has grown a lot in recent years, with Joe Nicholls joining and transforming our litigation sub-specialism and Matt Huggett coming into the Taunton office in the second half of last year, as well as Karolina Smolicz and Charlotte Cole qualifying with us and Valerie Curnow joining too.
“We’re a Firm that doesn’t like to just do things the same way everyone else does and our recognition in this award is testament to that, as we’ve been able to draw on our expertise in ethical HR, HRExpress, Mark Roby’s in-house HR support, our specialist immigration team and the strong relationships we have with other CSO teams. I’m hugely proud of what everyone in the team brings and the very strong relationships we have together as a team.”
The ceremony is scheduled for November at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London and promises to be a fantastic opportunity for the team to be further recognised on a national stage.