Employment Law Accreditation

Applicants should demonstrate a high level of knowledge and experience in the area of employment law. The application should include evidence the applicant has been engaged in a broad spectrum of work or practice in the employment law field throughout the five year period under review.  Examples provided in the application should demonstrate expertise at a high level of most of the following:

• individual employment rights;
• responsibilities and entitlements of employers;
• equality provisions; and
• collective employment law

When considering the strength of the application, the panel will consider the:

• role of the applicant in the work outlined - whether the applicant was the lead or a relatively junior member of a team; and
• the complexity of the work – whether the examples cited involve work that is relatively straightforward, or involved novel or untested points.

The panel will award more credit where the applicant has demonstrated a leading role in a range of complex or novel matters, rather than crediting simple volume of work and/or dealing with fairly straightforward matters.

All applicants should demonstrate the breadth of their work in the field in their application. Examples of contentious and non-contentious work should be provided where available

Applicants who have been engaged in the practice of employment law for the relevant five year period, whether in private practice or in-house, should be able to demonstrate a high level of working knowledge of the practical application of employment law through the employment tribunal system by highlighting complex or novel cases they have been involved with.

Applicants in practice who focus on more non-contentious aspects of employment law, and who do not have extensive employment tribunal experience in the relevant period, should provide the panel with an indication of whether or not they have gained such experience prior to the period under consideration.

Applicants who do not practice in the field should demonstrate a broad and high level of understanding of the practical application of employment law, for example, through evidence of teaching on the subject and/or writing guidance for practitioners or academic material.

Applicants should highlight any relevant qualifications gained, training received, and courses attended during the five year period. 

Employment law is a rapidly changing area of law and credit will be given where applicants have been engaged in knowledge sharing for the benefit of their peers. Applicants should therefore provide any available evidence of presenting seminars, teaching, responding to government consultation, and writing materials on employment law topics.  

The scope and correct application of employment law is open to interpretation in many areas and case law often confuses rather than clarifies the position. Lawyers in practice often face scenarios where the law does not present a clear answer to the question posed.  Applicants should demonstrate their expertise by providing examples of matters handled where they have come up with lateral/unusual solutions to problems, perhaps where law is new, untested, or uncertain. 

Applicants who are not in practice should provide evidence of how their thinking and/or research contributes to the development of the field.