New Hire Set To Boost IM’s Employment Law Offering In Education Sector

The Birmingham office of law firm Irwin Mitchell has appointed leading employment Solicitor, Surinder Dhillon as part of its plans to become the leading provider of legal services to schools across the West Midlands.

Before moving to Irwin Mitchell, Surinder was senior employment Solicitor at Birmingham City Council and Head of Schools Employment Law Unit. She joins Irwin Mitchell as an Associate and will be responsible for forging closer links between schools across the region and Irwin Mitchell’s fast-growing commercial legal team.

Whilst at Birmingham City Council, Surinder had a client base of 400 schools, ranging from maintained schools, free schools and academies. Here she provided advice on the full range of employment involving constructive and unfair dismissal, discrimination, victimisation and breach of contract.

In addition to dealing with litigation, Surinder was involved in non–contentious work, drafting of employment contracts and school policy and procedures for Academies and Free Schools.

Fergal Dowling, Partner and Head of Employment Law at Irwin Mitchell in Birmingham, said:

Expert Opinion

Surinder has worked in the largest in-house public sector team in the UK and during her time at Birmingham City Council, she became a very well-known employment law adviser within the education field.

“She has a proactive and entrepreneurial approach to law, which fits well with Irwin Mitchell, and was responsible for launching and building a very strong educational advisory unit for local schools in a relatively short period of time.

“She has a good working knowledge of school governance, dealing with a number of different school establishments, and her reputation amongst head teachers, executive head teachers and school governor is outstanding.

“Surinder has a clear vision in terms of how Irwin Mitchell can work closely with schools across the region and provide them with a broad range of high quality legal support. I am delighted that she has chosen Irwin Mitchell and very confident that she will replicate the success that she achieved at Birmingham City Council.”
Fergal Dowling - Partner & Director of Legal Services (Commercial Advisory ＆ Disputes)

Commenting on her appointment, Surinder said: “Irwin Mitchell has a strong reputation for its employment legal services as well as its innovative approach to law. The education sector is changing rapidly and I look forward to working with the teams at Irwin Mitchell to ensure that we build a strong unit capable of providing the first class legal services that schools require and deserve.”

Surinder is the latest high profile appointment within Irwin Mitchell’s Business Legal Services team in Birmingham. Earlier this year it announced that it has appointed Corporate Partners, Nick Dawson and Sarah Riding, as part of a strategic drive to expand its commercial offering across the West Midlands. Most recently it announced that Birmingham-based employment law specialist, Omer Simjee, had been promoted to Partner.