Catherine Taylor
Catherine Taylor is a Partner in the CMS Employment team and Co-Head of the Litigation Arbitration Insurance & Employment Practice Group. She works on employment issues, both contentious and non-contentious and has specific expertise in complex multi-jurisdictional and High Court litigation (especially bonus and employee competition disputes), board level disputes and data protection. Catherine also guides employers through complex investigations, setting the strategy and working with other teams to ensure the best possible client outcome. Her practice is employer focused, with a particular interest in the Financial Services and Technology, Media & Communications sectors. Catherine is joint author of Employee Competition (3rd Edition, published by OUP in 2016). She plays a leading role in the firm’s women’s network, CMS Women.
Practice Area
Panel
- Consulting Editorial Board
5 Contributions by Catherine Taylor
PRACTICE NOTES
Applicable law in cross-border employment: UK Rome I/II post‑Brexit—habitual place of work, closer connection, non‑derogable and overriding mandatory rules
This Practice Note explores how to identify the governing legal system for a contract of employment or an employment relationship. It reflects the consequences of Brexit, the close of the Withdrawal Agreement’s implementation period at 11pm on 31 December 2020, and the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL(RR)A 2023) for this field. For further details, see: Brexit impact, below.
Initial considerations
Where a dispute or claim involves an employee working wholly or partly abroad and/or engaged by a foreign employer, two preliminary questions arise:
what rights does the employee have?
in which forum should any subsequent litigation be decided?
In addressing these, three principal issues arise:
applicable law, namely which legal system governs the employment contract under review?
international jurisdiction, that is, which courts and/or tribunals should determine the case?...
Employment
PRACTICE NOTES
Equality Act 2010: territorial extent and workplace scope in Great Britain, including Lawson v Serco/Bleuse, seafarers and offshore work, tribunal jurisdiction, and post‑Brexit changes
When a dispute or claim concerns an employee working wholly or in part overseas and/or engaged by a foreign employer, two matters must be settled:
what rights does the employee have?
in which forum should any eventual litigation be heard?
In resolving these points, three principal matters arise:
applicable law — that is, which legal system governs the employment contract in question?
international jurisdiction — namely, which courts and/or tribunals ought to determine the dispute?...
Employment
PRACTICE NOTES
Territorial scope of statutory employment rights: Lawson v Serco, expatriate/peripatetic workers, Bleuse after REUL 2023, and implications for ERA, EqA, TULRCA, NMWA, TUPE and the Posted Workers Directive
Territorial application, scope or reach of relevant applicable or mandatory law
This Practice Note explores the territorial application, reach and scope of applicable or mandatory rules, namely, how the courts and employment tribunals decide which statutory rights (if any) attach to an employee who works overseas and/or is engaged by a foreign employer. It has been revised to reflect Brexit and the conclusion of the implementation period (IP) for the Withdrawal Agreement on IP completion day (11 pm on 31 December 2020) as it relates to this area of law. Between 1 January 2021 and the close of 2023, there was no alteration to the law affecting how UK courts approach the territorial scope of statutory employment rights, this being a domestic question. Additionally, the supremacy of EU law was, to a large extent, maintained by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EU(W)A 2018). From the end of 2023, however, section 3 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL(RR)A 2023) abolished the supremacy of EU law: the principle that EU law prevails is not part of domestic law, irrespective of when the enactment or rule was passed or made. We address this in the context of...
Employment
PRACTICE NOTES
UK employment jurisdiction after Brexit: application of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 to courts and tribunals, gateways, ET Rules, CPR, agreements, stays and anti‑suit injunctions
This Practice Note examines the provisions of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 (CJJA 1982) that resolve questions of international jurisdiction for employment proceedings commenced on or after 1 January 2021. For a visual summary, see: Determining jurisdiction in employment disputes (1 January 2021 onwards)—flowchart. For guidance where proceedings began on or before 31 December 2020, see:
Practice Note: International jurisdiction—allocating employment cases between national courts and tribunals pre-1 January 2021 [Archived]
Determining jurisdiction in employment disputes (to IP completion day)—flowchart [Archived]
Background
Where a common law claim is brought in the courts—such as a damages claim for breach of contract or to enforce post-termination restrictions (restrictive covenants)—jurisdiction is governed by the CJJA 1982 and the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). These rules apply to proceedings instituted on or after 1 January 2021 and replace Retained Regulation (EU) 1215/2012, Brussels I (recast) (commonly known as the Brussels 1a Regulation), and the Lugano Convention, which applied to proceedings started before the end of the Brexit transition period. The Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, SI...
Employment
FLOWCHARTS
International jurisdiction in UK employment disputes from 1 January 2021: flowchart on CJJA 1982, common law, and key tests (domicile, habitual place of work, place of engagement)
Within Scotland, minor offences proceed by way of a summary complaint. Summary procedure is governed under Part IX of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995...
Employment
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