Rose Smith

Legal Director | London (City)

Rose is an employment and education lawyer. She has a track record in providing measured employment law advice, and is also part of Doyle Clayton’s renowned Education Team, providing advice to teachers, professors and schools.

Her broad background means that she is able to advise on a wide variety of matters. She is empathetic and considerate, taking into account the nuanced and sensitive nature of employment issues, but also able to cut to the core of a matter and add strategic value. This means she is relied upon by her clients in the education sector and beyond to advise on highly complex investigations, disciplinaries and grievance processes, where there are important stakeholders, regulatory and/or safeguarding issues.

Rose is relied upon by corporate clients from a broad range of sectors (including, in addition to the education sector, the creative industries, technology, insurance and financial services sectors) to provide clear advice in relation to a broad range of HR issues, to run litigation, and to act as a true business partner to her clients.

In addition, Rose advises senior individuals in respect of all stages of the employment relationship, including reviewing and negotiating contractual terms, advice in relation to disciplinary and/or grievance issues, tenure review processes and advice in relation to the end of the employment relationship.

Rose is also part of Doyle Clayton’s Privacy team, and its Recruitment Sector team, having drafted terms of employment recruitment industry clients (including complex post termination restrictions and variable compensation arrangements) and advised in relation to the enforcement of post termination restrictions in the sector (including having successfully applied for injunctive relief for recruitment agency clients). Rose is developing her expertise in drafting and negotiating commercial terms of business, terms of engagement for temporary workers and contractors, and advising in relation to regulatory and compliance issues in this sector.

What people say about Rose

"Rose quickly made sense of my concerns, the context and complexities I faced. She was able to provide strong and timely legal support. It was a challenging time and I appreciated her guidance and sensitive approach. I absolutely made the right decision having Rose represent me and sincerely recommend her".

CEO, Academy Trust

"As a female in my particular line of work, she represented me as I wanted to be represented, which was of huge value. She was clear and consistent and brought my case to a satisfactory completion within a short time frame, reducing any stress where possible. I have already recommended her to an acquaintance and will continue to recommend her again in the future".

Client

"Honest. Authentic. Diplomatic. Empathetic. Makes the complex feel simple. In trying to sum up Rose and her talents, these are the first words that come to mind.

I have had the pleasure of partnering with Rose on some complex employment matters and found her style to be calming, empowering, and inspiring; quite an accomplishment I admit, but a reflection of her great mind (and heart). Really appreciate the depth of thought Rose shares so that I could make solid, reasoned choices without pressure. Rose is extremely knowledgable about the employment law arena, and a true business partner. I can not recommend her highly enough as a trusted advisor".

Client

Recent work includes

Employment status litigation in the construction sector
Successfully defending a highly sensitive whistleblowing claim against a large secure manufacturing business
Advising and producing documentation in respect of a collective consultation in a manufacturing and design business
Conducting a highly sensitive independent investigation for an insurance brokerage into allegations of misuse of alcohol and sexual harassment, working with regulatory specialists to ensure that all regulatory obligations were complied with
Preparing for the full hearing of a lengthy claim for race discrimination against a tech retail client, and negotiating very commercial settlement terms to avoid the full hearing
Preparing bespoke contracts for c suite employees of financial service industry clients
Advising a telecoms company on the impact of TUPE following a TSA where there was the possibility of an international transfer
Advising clients on responding to flexible working requests

Recent work in the education sector includes

Advising an independent school in respect of negotiating the exit of a teacher following an internal process
Advising the CEO of an Academy Trust in respect of historic allegations relating to governance and the use of “Calming Rooms”, which involved dealing with rebutting a vote of no confidence from the governing board, advising in respect of communications with the LADO and CPS, and balancing influential politically influential stakeholders and the press
Advising an assistant professor at Imperial College in respect of tenure and sex discrimination
Advising a professor in respect of religion or belief protection arising from gender critical views
Advising an independent preparatory school in respect of GDPR issues, data subject access requests, and investigations

Webinars & podcasts include -

Rose writes on a variety of employment topics and has had articles published in the Times, People Management magazine and the Financial News. She also has experience delivering internal and external training, and takes a leading role in the firm’s program of webinars and podcasts. She sits on the ELA training committee and organises training for other Employment lawyers.

Bonuses: To pay or not to pay Rose (with Naomi Jameson) discuss where bonuses are discretionary and where they're contractual and explain why the distinction between the two is so important
Bonus Disputes: what happens when things go wrong? Rose (with James Morrison) discusses what happens when bonuses go bad and how employers might get caught up in disputes over a bonus being payable

Experience and qualifications

Qualified in September 2011
Specialist in Employment Law since 2012

Professional memberships

Employment Lawyers Association (ELA)