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Sybille is a Partner and Head of the Southern Employment teams based in London, Gatwick and Southampton at Irwin Mitchell. She's dually qualified as an English solicitor and German Rechtsanwältin, and advises on the full range of employment issues under English and German law. She assists UK-based and international businesses, including medium, large and listed companies. Sybille also supports individuals, usually at board level.
Sybille is Head of the Irwin Mitchell German Group.
Her specialties include:
She is the Honorary Chairman of the British-German Jurists' Association.
Sybille is ranked as an expert in her field by the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners Global.
“The material in question would be considered Intellectual property and when such material is created by an employee during their employment, the rights to this material will usually belong to the employer. “However, to reinforce the statutory provisions, we advise Employers to ensure that their contracts of employment contain an assignment of IP rights, and where IP is a critical aspect of that employee’s role, we would suggest seeking specialist advice to ensure that the Company’s rights are protected. “Whist general duties of fidelity and fiduciary duties implied into every employment contract may help prevent an employee’s unauthorised disclosure of confidential information during the course of their employment, these implied duties cease at the termination of the contract. We would therefore recommend carefully constructed post-employment restrictions be included within the contract of any employee/director or contractor exposed to your company’s confidential material, trade secrets or intellectual property. “These might include restrictions on the disclosure of confidential materials and restrictions on other competitive activities, such as working for a direct competitor for a specific period (intended to have the effect of protecting the confidential information. “Another is an obligation to bring any post-employment restrictions to the attention of any future employer. “The latter is a vital clause, as if a future employer is aware that the individual is acting in contravention of their contractual obligations, say, by taking up employment with them during a restricted period, then the company may have the right to take action against the future employer for procuring a breach of contract, not just the ex-employee. “We would also urge any business in which confidential materials are generated or used to carefully consider whether they have effective processes and procedures in place to dissuade departing employees from seeking to use this for their own, or a competitor’s advantage.”
"In order to find and retain a good workforce, employers must think about what attracts people to a job now and in the future and must adapt their recruitment strategies to changing priorities. An attractive and amenable workplace is seen as increasingly important in today's ever competitive market place, particularly for the millennials."
“The statistics demonstrate that workers are again more willing to bring claims to resolve their employment disputes now they don't have to find up to £1,200. “The Supreme Court heard convincing evidence that many workers didn't bother to bring claims for unlawful deductions from wages such as being underpaid holiday because the cost of bringing them often exceeded the amount in dispute. Attitudes have clearly now changed and we are likely to see increasing numbers of workers willing to bring claims if they cannot resolve disputes directly with their employers. “We will need at least another set of quarterly figures to determine if these figures represent the 'new normal', but in my opinion, claims are only going in one direction - and that is upwards.”
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