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Leading North West law firm SAS Daniels has appointed Stephen Foster as a Partner in its growing Employment Law and HR team. Stephen will head up the employment law side of the firm’s Education sector team that services over 85 schools, colleges and academies with employment law and HR advice.
Stephen, who is based at the firm’s Stockport office, brings over 15 years’ experience gained at a number of major corporations including Kelloggs, The Co-operative, and law firm DWF. His experience covers all aspects of employment law and HR including all grounds of discrimination, redundancies and re-organisations, and TUPE transfers. Stephen is an experienced advocate having represented clients in both Employment Tribunals and the EAT, but brings a special focus on advising, training and supporting management across issues as diverse as absence management, managing disabilities and reducing claims arising from disciplinaries and grievances in order to save clients’ time and money.
Stephen’s appointment follows a period of high growth for SAS Daniels’ Employment law and HR practice. The team, which supports clients from all four of the firm’s offices in Stockport, Macclesfield, Chester and Congleton, has achieved over 20% growth over the past 12 months, and see a client retention rate of 94%. It also hit the £1 million mark for the annual value of contracts for its SAS Protect and HR Solutions services in 2016.
Commenting on the appointment, Jonathan Whittaker, Senior Partner and Head of the Employment Law and HR team says “Stephen brings a wealth of experience in managing staff matters across a variety of sectors and his appointment is fundamental to our continued success in the Education sector. As part of our on-going growth strategy, Stephen will also a play a key part in our ambitious plans for our Employment & HR team in 2017
Stephen comments, “SAS Daniels is ambitious and I’ve been impressed by its ‘no ordinary law firm’ approach to clients and servicing. As a key provider of legal and HR advice in the Education sector, the firm really understands the challenges faced by schools, colleges and academies, and as a result offers a service that exceeds clients’ expectations. I’m looking forward to taking on a role that will deliver the firms’ growth plans in this sector, whilst supporting individual education clients faced with an on-going difficult environment.”
The Education sector team currently delivers a responsive business support service named ‘SAS Protect’ and ‘HR solutions’ to schools, colleges and academies.
Chris Swerling, Head of HR at SAS Daniels adds, “We are delighted to welcome Stephen on board as a Partner at an exciting time in our continued growth planned for the Education Sector. His extensive expertise in Employment Law and HR along with his commercial background know-how is invaluable in ensuring that both myself and our Education 360 Team of HR Consultants have all the pragmatic legal support readily on hand. We always aim to add value to our clients and Stephen’s appointment will grow our service offering further to meet our Educational client needs.”
