One of Scotland’s premier law firms, Burness LLP provides legal advice to commercial clients in the private and public sectors throughout the UK and overseas.  The firm has offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Our business focuses on total client satisfaction achieved by delivering first-class commercial solutions from a highly skilled resource.  Burness LLP is frequently singled out for its partner-led approach and clients benefit from knowing that their business is nurtured by dedicated client facing teams reputed for their industry experience and client relationship values.

Our Employment Law Unit, which won two accolades at Law Awards of Scotland 2005 and then “Employment Team of the Year” at the Scottish Legal Awards 2006, advises on all areas of employment, pensions and benefits law including representation at court and Employment Tribunal, employment contracts, sex discrimination, unfair dismissal, working time, trade union and labour relations, wind-ups, business transfers and TUPE-related issues.  

Our employment law team “impresses observers with its “combination of pragmatism, creative solutions and a commercially focused attitude”.” (Chambers & Partners UK, 2007 edition).

A proactive approach means we work with clients to achieve best practice on all people issues with a view to preventing employment disputes from arising in the first place.  We regularly help clients meet their strategic business objectives by working together through change management exercises involving business transfers and large-scale reorganizations of staff.

We also offer our b*spoke Employment Law Training programme, a suite of interactive training packages providing practical, relevant solutions to all manner of potential HR challenges.  From discipline to absence management and poor performance, each training module is tailored specifically to the client's industry, guiding them through a range of real-life scenarios played out on film by professional actors.  Each film acts as a ‘virtual role-play’ via interactive DVD to explore, in real time, the specific legal issues that arise.

We do not simply advise on the law.  Instead, we take a broader view, having regard to the impact of decisions on commercial objectives, industrial relations, employee morale and the wider risk to the reputation of our clients.  On major projects such as employment tribunal claims, senior level executive severance and reorganizations/ restructurings, we adopt a project management approach to assess the legal risks, assisting clients in making informed decisions on the whole range of HR and people issues.