Ellie is an experienced Partner and Head of the Employment team who works closely with businesses on their day-to-day HR and employment practices as well as advising on reorganisations and business transfers.

Ellie’s approach has a strong focus on ethical HR, supporting her clients to establish great people practices. Her advice is bespoke, focused and pragmatic, leaving senior leaders freer to spend their time on the running of the business.

A member of the Employment Lawyers’ Association, Ellie also supports private individuals on the full spectrum of employment law including redundancy, departure situations and settlement agreements, capability issues and discrimination.

Ellie is part of our social housing sector, which supports a large number of social housing providers and registered landlords. As a sector team, we are keeping a close eye on the progress of the Employment Rights Bill and how it will affect employers, particularly thinking about zero/low hours staff, collective negotiations around pay and conditions and limitations on dismissal and re-engagement.

Ellie read classics at King’s College, Cambridge (MA Hons) before completing the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at the Colleague of Law in Guildford, obtaining a distinction in both courses. She trained at a London firm and qualified at the same firm in 2007. Ellie joined Stephens Scown in 2015.

Alongside her legal work, Ellie sits as a member of our strategic board, holding specific responsibility for client experience. Ellie is passionate about how decisions we take within the firm are informed by the impact of and experience for our clients. She works with the board and internal teams to help our clients achieve the outcomes which are most important for them.

Recent work includes:

• Working with a family-owned business to support the particular dynamics of their business set-up, including advising on the positions of several leaders in the business.
• Supporting a national clothing company in relation to the relocation of some of its manufacturing operations following a decision for one of its brands to close its base and separately advising in relation to a senior exit.
• Advising on a complex set of grievances and counter-grievances involving allegations of homophobic and sexist conduct.
• Advising a senior female employee on changes unlawfully made to her role, resulting in a significant pay cut, under the guise of a redundancy exercise.
• Advising a private school on a restructure in its teaching staff, including managing the subsequent redundancy selection and consultation exercise.
• Supporting a senior sales employee bullied and mistreated by a younger manager, resulting in a departure package equivalent to over a year’s pay.
• Working with a business, facing increasing financial challenges and pressures, on how best to approach necessary changes in employees’ working hours, ensuring that any potential risk is minimised.
• Advising an employer on how to manage sensitive allegations of sexual harassment.
• Advising a group of employees leaving an employer under a collective consultation redundancy exercise, ensuring the best terms possible.
• Providing day to day practical guidance to employers and HR teams on handling a range of HR and employment law issues including sickness absence management, bullying and harassment and disciplinary matters.

Outside of work, Ellie enjoys cooking, watching cricket and rugby and spending time with her husband and two young daughters.