Litigation and Employment Disputes for Employers

Litigation and Disputes

Resolving employment disputes with precision, discretion and success

At Watershed, we act for employers navigating high-stakes employment disputes. These are situations where business continuity, leadership integrity or reputational standing are at risk.

Our litigation team combines rigorous legal expertise with strategic acumen, often operating at board level and in close consultation with HR and corporate leaders.

Unlike many employment law firms, we handle the full arc of contentious matters: from early-stage resolution to complex tribunal advocacy. We do so with a success rate that reflects both our meticulous preparation and our ability to conduct our own advocacy in-house. This is a capability few firms of our size offer.

Our client list includes leading employers in retail, healthcare and financial services, many of whom come to us through recommendations from existing clients or via our close integration with management consultancy Collinson Grant.

This relationship affords us rare visibility into the corporate context behind legal disputes, and allows us to intervene early, often preventing litigation altogether.

What we do

We represent employers only, advising and defending in the following areas:

Employment tribunals
We act for employers across the UK in unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing and other statutory claims. Our team often conducts its own advocacy, providing continuity, efficiency and strategic consistency from instruction to hearing.

Settlement agreements and ACAS early conciliation
Where litigation can be avoided, we guide clients through structured resolution, drafting robust settlement terms, managing risk and preserving employer reputation.

Restrictive covenant breaches and contractual disputes
We advise on the enforcement of post-termination restrictions, protection of confidential information and unlawful competition. Whether acting pre-emptively or in response to breach, we help clients resolve the issue, negotiate undertakings, and advise on when specialist commercial litigation input (such as injunctive proceedings) may be required.

Crisis response and urgent dispute management/h4>

When disputes escalate rapidly, we mobilise quickly, responding to claims at short notice, obtaining extended deadlines where possible, and providing tactical advice to protect commercial interests. We coordinate with external counsel where interim relief may be sought in whistleblowing or union-related dismissal cases, or where other court-based remedies are required, ensuring our clients’ employment law strategy is fully aligned.

Note: Whilst often contentious by nature, grievances, disciplinary processes and internal investigations when carefully handled, won’t always escalate to litigation. We advise on those separately and help clients lower risk with robust process. See our pages on workplace investigations, disciplinary procedures and grievances and complaints for detailed guidance.

How we work

Our approach is proactive, pragmatic and commercially aware. We partner with clients to:

• Diagnose risk early and intervene decisively.
• Weigh the legal, reputational and human implications of each course of action.
• Tailor legal strategy to organisational culture and appetite for litigation.
• Where necessary, manage parallel workstreams such as internal investigations or media response.

Every matter is handled by a senior lawyer , ensuring clients receive considered advice grounded in deep employment law expertise and experience.

We do not over-lawyer; we do not escalate unnecessarily or shy away from risk when needed. Our focus is resolution and achieving desired results by whatever means most serves the client’s long-term interests.

Experience that matters

Our lawyers have acted in complex, multi-day hearings, including discrimination claims involving senior executives. Recent instructions include:

• Successfully defended claims of race discrimination against a design, engineering and project management consultancy with 10,000 employees in the UK, in a
• multi-day hearing where the claimant was seeking substantial and significant damages including securing a cost award against the claimant for our client.
• Successfully defended unfair dismissal, age discrimination, and racial harassment claims against a leading care provider, where the claimant was seeking substantially significant damages.
• Preventing a breach of post-termination restrictions by negotiating enforceable undertakings from a former employee and their new employer.
• Advising an employer on maintaining the appointment of a key hire while addressing legitimate concerns raised by a competitor.
• Representing a national employer in a whistleblowing claim with significant media interest, achieving favourable settlement terms via Acas early conciliation..

A strategic extension of your team

As part of the wider Collinson Grant network, we do more than litigate. We understand the structural, cultural and operational factors that drive disputes. This means we can advise not only on legal risk, but on the wider organisational implications of a claim, issue or breach of contract.

We work closely with internal HR teams, senior leadership and external PR advisors to ensure that every response, whether public or confidential, is proportionate, lawful and aligned to business objectives.

Speak to us

If you’re facing a dispute, or want to prevent one, speak to a member of our litigation team. We’ll listen carefully, act swiftly, and give you the clarity you need to move forward.