Dan Begbie-Clench

Dan's employer clients include companies, LLPs and partnerships in a range of sectors including financial services, media, tech, fashion and pharma. He regularly advises on enforcing post-termination restrictions, preventing employees from using confidential information, strategic employment law issues and reorganisations.

He also advises senior executives, LLP members, partners and employees. He helps them to negotiate contracts and favourable exit terms, and advises on bonus and pay disputes, board and partnership disputes, whistleblowing and discrimination claims.

What people say about Dan

Dan is highly regarded in both legal directories - The Legal 500 and Chambers. The Legal 500 describes him as ... "commercial, extraordinarily responsive, knowledgeable ..." and Chambers as providing ... "exceptional advice. He is able to cut through complexity without compromising quality."

Dan's recent caseload for businesses/employers includes advising 

• A number of financial services employers investigating misuse of confidential information and breaches of restrictive covenants by departing employees, and taking steps including High Court action to protect their businesses from unlawful competition
• A financial services firm in defending Employment Tribunal claims for unfair dismissal and discrimination brought by employees dismissed for gross misconduct
• A healthcare company on its investigation into historic allegations of sexual harassment committed by a senior employee, which were raised by an employee during a grievance process
• A household name PLC in defending allegations of whistle-blowing brought by an overseas employee
• A US-headquartered financial services firm in defending allegations of whistle-blowing brought by an employee assigned to the UK
• A financial services firm on investigating and dismissing C-suite employees
• A pharma company on an internal restructure of its HR and recruitment functions
• On harmonising terms and conditions of employees for: a global sports brand throughout its worldwide operations; and two financial services firms which wanted to harmonise their UK operations following numerous acquisitions and TUPE transfers, with one of these instructions involving 2,000 employees employed in 10 subsidiary companies
• A luxury brand carrying out a disciplinary investigation into misconduct and theft by a store manager, and subsequently dismissing him
• Another luxury brand investigating complaints of discrimination brought by an employee into misconduct and theft by a store manager, and subsequently dismissing him.

Dan's recent work for Senior Executives, Partners and Employees includes advising 

• On an equal pay and sex discrimination claim representing a senior executive in the insurance business, achieving settlement of the Tribunal case for sums in excess of £700k
• A partner in an actuarial consulting business on a race discrimination claim relating to a failure to promote him, achieving settlement of the Tribunal case for a sum in excess of £500k
• Two in-house lawyers working for a utility company who raised whistle-blowing complaints, achieving settlements of over 1.5 year's pay for each
• The Managing Partner of a law firm in an acrimonious situation where discrimination complaints had arisen, resulting in a substantial exit package
• A senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry which resulted in a substantial settlement package totalling over 15 months' salary and bonus
• C-suite employees leaving a PLC insurance company
• Insurance brokers threatened with injunctive relief proceedings for alleged breaches of restrictions.

Dan also takes a lead role in Doyle Clayton’s membership of ELLINT.  His prior experience came at Olswang (now CMS) from 2001 to 2005, followed by Parker & Co until he joined Doyle Clayton in 2011, becoming a partner in 2015. 

He is fluent in French and speaks basic Italian and Portuguese. Dan studied law at a French university and spent a year working at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg before qualifying as a solicitor.

Articles published include

Non-compete clause consultation suggests change is coming:The Present system isn't perfect but are radical solutions the answer? Published by The Times

Webinars and podcasts include 

• Back to the Workplace Expectations - This panel event discusses achieving the right balance between legal obligations and keeping employees happy as we approach the (hopefully) final stages of the COVID-19 lockdown
• Rejecting Flexible Working Requests: Implications for Employers - Dan joins his colleague Karen Holden to discuss rejecting flexible working requests in light of a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision in the case of Glover v Lacoste UK Ltd and Harmon

Experience and qualifications 

• Qualified in October 2003 
• Specialist in Employment Law since 2003

Professional memberships 

• Employment Lawyers Association
• European Employment Lawyers Association

Areas of expertise

• Partnerships and LLPs
• Whistleblowing
• Discrimination advice
• Senior Executives