Employment Team

Slade qualified as a Solicitor in 2004 and is a Partner and Head of our Employment Law & Human Resources Support Department managing a highly proficient team. Slade is also a member of the Employment Lawyers Association. Slade has a practice spanning both our Kingsbridge and Plymouth offices, the South West region and beyond with clients in London, Birmingham and around the UK.

Slade has advised on Employment Issues across most sectors including Agriculture, Aviation, Banking, Building, Cinematography & CGI, Charities, Education Engineering, Fisheries, Health Care, Housing, Legal, Marine, Nuclear Energy, Retail, Television, Radio and Professional Football.

Relevant Experience

• Appointed to deal with employment issues of the closure of the only state faith school in Cornwall in 2015, which was the subject of political discord in Parliament at the time.

• Successfully acted for Radio and TV presenters in Age Discrimination claims.

• Slade has acted successfully for many Judges in High Value, Part Time Pension Litigation most recently those whose claims were out of time.

• Successfully acted for employees ranging in age from 14 to 90 plus.

• Recently acted for a leading British literary agent and successfully defended all claims pertaining to employment status, holiday entitlements, National Minimum Wage, and others.

• Slade has nearly two decades of experience in advising both employers and employees on settling disputes. In 2022, Slade dealt with settlements for individuals at sums ranging between £25,000 to in excess of £250,000.

Slade’s philosophy is that “prevention is better than cure” and he gets involved with his commercial clients from the starting-up stage including recruitment and key appointments, writing policies and contracts that reflect the employment relationship, and is often instructed to deal with contentious situations before they become litigated in the Employment Tribunal, advising on all aspects of hard HR and internal dispute resolution.

Slade brings a multifaceted approach to disputes and is creative in finding synergistic resolutions in even the most contentious situations such as partnership disputes.

Slade’s background of competitive amateur sport including football, boxing and long distance running reflect his competitive nature and winning ethos. Outside of Law, Slade enjoys time with his family, writing, hill and mountain walking mainly in Devon and North Wales, and property renovation and development. Slade is a licenced FA football coach and enjoys coaching at grass roots level and helping his players to excel and win trophies.

Paul graduated from the University of Cambridge before training at the future Clifford Chance. After a short spell there as a solicitor dealing with commercial leases he made the lifestyle choice of moving to general practice in Devon.

Paul was a partner at Beers LLP from 1982 to 2019, and senior partner for about 10 years. He is now a consultant to the firm specialising in employment law.

He has sat as an Employment Judge since 1992, and as a Judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal since 2014. He also has an interest in professional regulation, sitting on the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, and being responsible for the regulation of the members of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. He is a legal assessor (adviser) for the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s fitness to practice committee.