Sophie Vanhegan
UK Guide 2025
Band 4 : Employment: Employer
Email address
[email protected]Contact number
020 3375 0338Share profile
Band 4
About
Provided by Sophie Vanhegan
Practice Areas
Sophie is acknowledged as a leading lawyer in the UK employment law arena and has extensive experience in both High Court employment litigation and strategic advisory work. Her practice encompasses all aspects of UK employment law, including injunctions, team moves, unfair dismissals, bonuses and discrimination. She has experience of outsourcings, TUPE, company restructures, redundancies and regulatory issues.
Sophie’s client achievements include:
- successfully advising the asset management division of a FTSE listed banking group in a complex redundancy situation where the potentially redundant employee had alleged race, disability and sex discrimination;
- advising a client on sensitive #MeToo allegations concerning a very senior employee and successfully negotiating their amicable exit from the company;
- advising a FinTech company on enforcing a non-compete restriction against a former senior employee who had joined a competitor;
- defending a financial services firm in a multi-million pound discrimination dispute with a former employee; and
- advising the asset management division of a FTSE listed banking group in defending allegations in pre-action correspondence of two unlawful team moves inducing a breach of restrictive covenants in relation to the client’s hiring of a number of key hires from two competitors, alongside putting in place complex long-term cash incentive plans for them to achieve key financial targets once restriction free.
Experienced in all aspects of employment law and specialising in complex employment litigation, Sophie regularly advises on restrictive covenant, breach of confidentiality and team move matters which involve High Court injunctions and subsequent trials, as well as bonus disputes and high-value discrimination claims. Many of the cases she works on have cross-jurisdictional elements. She has worked on some of the most complex employment litigation matters and specialises in tailoring a strategic approach to her clients’ risk and litigation appetite.
Career
Sophie worked at Linklaters until 2012 before joining GQ|Littler. At Linklaters Sophie undertook a five-month secondment to global investment bank RBS to assist with restructuring issues, following RBS's acquisition of ABN AMRO. Sophie was promoted to partner in 2015.
Professional Memberships
Employment Lawyers Association.
Chambers Review
UK
Sophie Vanhegan frequently advises employers on matters including TUPE, restrictive covenants and discrimination claims. She is commended for her knowledge of the financial services sector.
Strengths
Provided by Chambers
"She's super smart, very pragmatic and extremely responsive."
"Sophie is able to swiftly and efficiently deal with complex and sophisticated legal issues, often with cross-border considerations."
"Sophie maintains strong commercial awareness and this is exemplified in her practical and pragmatic approach to managing legal issues."
"She's super smart, very pragmatic and extremely responsive."
"Sophie is able to swiftly and efficiently deal with complex and sophisticated legal issues, often with cross-border considerations."
"Sophie maintains strong commercial awareness and this is exemplified in her practical and pragmatic approach to managing legal issues."
Articles, highlights and press releases
2 items provided by GQ|Littler
Sexual misconduct in the city: fostering better workplace cultures
The House of Commons is yet another in a long line of high-profile organisations that have been hit with public accusations of sexual harassment. One common thread in many of these cases that have hit the headline is reports of poor culture.
Number of UK fit notes increases 11% to hit record high 10.4m
The number of fit notes issued by NHS medical professionals hit a record high of 10.4m, increasing 11% in 2021/22, shows an analysis of data by GQ|Littler, the specialist employment law firm.
Sexual misconduct in the city: fostering better workplace cultures
The House of Commons is yet another in a long line of high-profile organisations that have been hit with public accusations of sexual harassment. One common thread in many of these cases that have hit the headline is reports of poor culture.
Number of UK fit notes increases 11% to hit record high 10.4m
The number of fit notes issued by NHS medical professionals hit a record high of 10.4m, increasing 11% in 2021/22, shows an analysis of data by GQ|Littler, the specialist employment law firm.