About Shane
Shane is a partner and head of our employment & benefits team, specialising in all aspects of employment and pensions law, advising on contentious and non-contentious matters. Shane acts for government departments, large public employers, state and semi-state bodies, indigenous companies, multi-national corporate clients, charities and NFP organisations, international & domestic insurance companies and financial institutions. Shane has particular expertise advising public and regulatory employers on strategic employment issues arising during the full tenure of the employment relationship, from recruitment to employee exit and beyond.
Shane regularly represents employers in employment disputes including applications for injunctions, actions defending claims of unfair dismissal, discrimination, penalisation and all claims arising under employment legislation before the Workplace Relations Commission, the Labour Court and the civil courts.
Shane has extensive experience advising clients in transaction due diligence, the drafting of employment contracts, contractor agreements and HR policies & procedures. Shane is an expert in advising new entrants to the Irish legal market from the UK, the US and other jurisdictions.
Shane also provides ongoing support to C-suite executives and HR managers on protected disclosures, internal reorganisations and rationalisations, terminations, negotiating the exit of senior employees, audit of employment-related documentation and the transfer of undertakings.
Relevant Experience
- Providing strategic advice to the board of a public body on the exit of a senior employee and successfully defending the resulting litigation.
- Advising a large indigenous company on protected disclosures and successfully defending penalisation claims before the WRC.
- Representing a semi-state body defending injunction proceedings issued by an executive and negotiating a settlement.
- Advising a large indigenous engineering firm on employment due diligence and contract negotiation during a €100m transaction.
- Advising a multinational company on its pension auto-enrolment obligations.
- Successfully appealing a WRC determination before the Labour Court for a large public sector employer.
- Successfully representing a technological university in multiple WRC employment disputes including unfair dismissal claims, payment of wages claims, bullying and harassment claims, fixed-term work claims and contract of indefinite duration issues.
- Advising a foreign direct investment company on its obligations as an Irish employer when first entering the Irish market including training and webinar-based knowledge sessions for its HR teams in various jurisdictions.
- Advising an indigenous manufacturing company on a collective redundancy scenario.
- Successfully representing a civil service employer before the WRC in multiple employment law and equal status disputes.
- Advising a state body on interpretation of the relevant circular, the implementation of this circular and reporting to the parent department regarding an investigation which led to a disciplinary process.