Case Study 2

A senior corporate counsel came to us via a recommendation from a former client. This corporate counsel was ‘completely fed up’ with his employer. In fact, things had so bad that he had resigned by email in the middle of a night out of frustration. In the morning, however, he tried to change his mind. Our Client’s employer maintained that the resignation stood and that our Client’s employment was soon to end.

We immediately advised our Client of a little known case that states that it can be unfair dismissal for an employer to rely on a resignation made in the heat of the moment or where it can be said that the employee is not him or herself. This rule applies when the resignation is retracted quickly, as in this case. We used our knowledge and experience to negotiate a very favourable settlement for the Client. That Client later said that we should put the following words on our website: ‘I came to Simon at a time when I did not really have a case, he convinced the company that I did and got me an excellent result’.