The primary area of Martin's practice is employment but he also has considerable experience of professional liability, commercial and construction litigation. He is an ADR Group Accredited Mediator and has acted as Mediator in several employment and professional negligence disputes through Littleton Dispute Resolution Services Limited.

Martin is listed as a "Leading Junior" in Employment Law, Legal 500 (2007-8) and there described as "tenacious". He also features in Chambers UK Guide 2008 in the same sector being referred to as "responsive, user-friendly and a very persuasive advocate...particularly recommended for his restrictive covenant work."

Professional Experience

Martin's practice includes representing and advising both employers and employees in the areas of unfair dismissal and general employment law. He has a broad range of experience covering most business and industrial sectors from financial services to fast food to coal mining and has also worked for many public authority clients.

At appellate level his appearances include cases on jurisdiction of employment tribunals over overseas employments; Jackson v Ghost Inc [2003] IRLR 824 and Financial Times v Bishop EAT 2003. Dan Tran v Greenwich Vietnam Community [2002] IRLR 735 CA concerned the duty of an ET to give reasons. Martin acted for the successful employer/respondent in Hepworths plc v Akers EAT 2003 on the introduction of new terms and conditions by employers and role of the law relating to duress in those situations and appeared in Hinton v University of East London CA [2005] IRLR 552 on compromise agreements.

Martin is Joint Editor (with John Bowers, Jeremy Lewis and Eleena Misra of Littleton of the Employment volume of Atkin: Court Forms (Butterworths) (2007) and joint author with John Bowers, Jeremy Lewis and Jack Mitchell of "Whistleblowing: the law and practice" OUP 2007.

As the Chambers UK Guide notes Martin has considerable experience of confidential information and post termination restraint litigation and here too has acted for a wide range of clients, from publishing companies to city dealing houses. Cases include: Dent Wizard v Thomas HCQB 2001 and Cantor Fitzgerald v Wallace [1992] IRLR 215

Discrimination law is a further area of expertise in which Martin has acted for and advised (amongst others) a major UK airline resisting an allegation of sex discrimination; a firm of solicitors in respect of a race discrimination claim brought by an ex solicitor employee; a major financial plc resisting an allegations of sex discrimination and harassment; a social worker training quango in respect of a race discrimination claim; an NHS Trust resisting claims for equal pay from 5 female consultants; Universities resisting race discrimination and victimisation claims and a children's charity resisting a claim of disability discrimination. Martin is the Joint Editor (with John Bowers QC, Jeremy Lewis and Elena Misra of Littleton of the Equal Opportunities volume of Atkin : Court Forms (Butterworths) (2007)

In the area of Transfer of Undertakings Martin has again advised or acted for a wide range of clients including an airline, a major insurance company, outsourcing contractors, solicitors and local/regional government institutions. He appeared in Playle v Churchill Insurance EAT 1999 on the issue of whether an economic entity retained its identity following a transfer - He is a Contributor to "Transfer of Undertakings", Sweet & Maxwell (ongoing) and to "Cross Border Transfers and Employee Rights" Tothill 2004 ed. Susan Mayne and has written various articles with John Bowers on this area.

Professional liability

Martin's professional liability practice mainly consists of defence work for solicitors with a particular area of expertise in employment advice and litigation related negligence but his practice also covers other professionals, accountants, financial services and construction related.
Professional liability cases include: Port of Sheerness v Brachers [1997] IRLR 214 (defending a professional negligence claim against solicitors in relation to advice as to redundancy consultation) P.K. Finans International (UK) Ltd v Andrew Downs & Co Ltd [1992] 1 EGLR 172 (QB) (one of the first cases on contributory fault by a mortgage lender) W.M. Merrick v Meredith [1996] (CA) The Times, January 31 (errors of reasoning by trial judge in claim of breach of duty against a solicitor).

Education

BA (Hons) History 1st Class (University of London)
Dip Law (City University)
LLM (Cambridge University)