Crisis Response and Urgent Dispute Management

Crisis response and urgent employment disputes

Some issues unfold quietly over time; others detonate without warning, raising urgent questions of legal liability, public exposure or commercial disruption. In such moments, delay can be costly. Decisive legal support becomes critical. 

At Watershed, we respond with immediacy and insight. We deploy senior lawyers within hours, not days, working shoulder-to-shoulder with HR leaders, in-house counsel, and boards. Our objective: to regain control, contain risk, and safeguard the employer’s position, without losing sight of the wider commercial context.

Immediate action for high-stakes situations

When a claim is filed overnight, a hearing is unexpectedly listed, or a whistleblowing allegation becomes a reputational flashpoint, employers need clear legal leadership… fast.

 Watershed supports businesses through these scenarios by:

Meeting urgent deadlines – Responding to Employment Tribunal claims, Acas conciliation, or internal complaints at short notice. 
Buying time strategically -Securing extensions or procedural leeway where initial compliance is impractical.
Defending emergency applications – Including interim relief claims arising from whistleblowing or discrimination allegations. 
Stabilising the optics – Advising on reputational risk, stakeholder messaging, and internal communications. 
Coordinating wider defence – Working with specialist counsel where injunctive relief or commercial litigation is in play.

Our clients often face simultaneous legal, commercial and reputational risks. We operate across all three with clarity and discipline.

A Senior-Led, Commercially Calibrated Approach

We do not delegate urgent matters to junior lawyers. Every crisis is managed directly by experienced solicitors, people who have dealt with high-stakes disputes at board level. 

Our crisis response work is marked by:

Speed without haste – Acting quickly, but not reflexively, our advice is both rapid and reasoned. 
Balanced judgement – We weigh legal exposure against brand integrity, operational disruption, and future risk. 
Integrated thinking – Working across legal, HR, PR and leadership teams to ensure aligned action. 
Outcome orientation – Our focus is on the business objective, not just the legal endpoint.

We help employers navigate through noise, not just respond to it.

Why employers trust Watershed

Crisis work reveals a firm’s true character. Ours is shaped by four distinctive strengths:

Employer-side expertise – We act exclusively for employers – not individuals – so our focus is unequivocal. 
Practical litigation experience – We defend whistleblowing and discrimination claims under pressure, including interim relief matters. 
Commercial contract capability – We act in disputes involving post-termination restrictions, breaches of confidence, and competitor activity. 
Access to broader crisis insight – Through our close partnership with Collinson Grant, we bring strategic understanding of change management, restructuring, and reputational control.

When others escalate, we stabilise.

Recent matters

In the past 12 months, our team has:

Acted for a national employer facing a whistleblowing claim with immediate media scrutiny, buying time through strategic use of Acas conciliation. 
Secured procedural extensions in a complex discrimination case lodged without warning. 
Advised on breach of contract issues involving staff departures to competitors, coordinating legal and commercial responses. 
Supported senior HR and communications leaders in responding to internal allegations with reputational implications.

We are the team employers – and even other employment lawyers – call when they cannot afford missteps.