Speakers
Mr. Árni Páll Árnason
Iceland, Vice-President of ESA, EFTA Surveillance Authority
Árni Páll Árnason is a member of the College of the EFTA Surveillance Authority, responsible for Free movement of goods, Competition, Public undertakings and Monopolies, Energy, Environment, Transport, Public procurement (since 2022).
He is a former Icelandic politician, who served in the government of Iceland as Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security from 10 May 2009 to 2 September 2010, and as Minister of Economic Affairs from 2 September 2010 to 31 December 2011. He served as a Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party from 2007 – 2016. He was elected party leader in February 2013 and served as leader until June 2016.
Árni Páll Árnason served as Deputy Director of the Financial Mechanism Office for the EEA and Norway Grants in Brussels from 2018 to 2021.
Keynote Speaker
Róbert Spanó
Iceland, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, former President of the European Court of Human Rights.
Róbert Spanó is a Partner in the London and Paris offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and the co-chair of the firm’s Artificial Intelligence Practice Group. He is the former President of the European Court of Human Rights. Robert sits on the Panel of Arbitrators and Conciliators of the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and is an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple. Róbert is a visiting professor of law at the University of Oxford and also serves part-time as a tenured professor of law at the University of Iceland, where he served as dean of the faculty before being elected to the international judiciary. Robert graduated with a Magister Juris Degree in European and Comparative Law from the University of Oxford. Prior to his studies at Oxford, he studied international trade law and EU law at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and graduated with a Candidatus Juris Degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Iceland. Robert is admitted to the Icelandic Bar and is a registered foreign lawyer in the United Kingdom.
An expanding Internal Market
Session leader:
Prof. Catherine Barnard, UK, Professor of European Union Law and Employment Law at the University of Cambridge.
Panel members:
Prof. Dr. Gunnar Thor Pétursson, Iceland, Professor of Law at Reykjavik University and Visiting Professor at Université Paris (II), Panthéon-Assas.
Mona Næss, Norway, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion, Oslo.
Joao Vale de Almeida, Portugal, Former EU Ambassador to UK, UN and US.
Adam Pokorny, Germany, Head of the Unit “Labour law” in Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission, Brussels.
Prof. Catherine Barnard
Mona Næs
Prof. Dr. Gunnar Thor Pétursson
Joao Vale de Almeida
Adam Pokorny
Catherine Barnard
FBA, FLSW, FRSA is Professor of EU law and Employment Law and senior tutor and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is the author of EU Employment Law (Oxford, OUP, 2012, 5th ed.), The Substantive Law of the EU: The Four Freedoms, (Oxford, OUP, 2022, 7th ed), and (with Peers ed), European Union Law (Oxford, OUP, 2023, 4th ed). She is a member of the European Commission funded European Labour Law Network (ELLN). She is also a Senior Fellow of the UK in a Changing Europe (http://ukandeu.ac.uk/) project (UKCE). This is an authoritative, non-partisan think-tank which does research and provides information about all aspects of Brexit. Part of its remit is to make that information accessible to the general public. She has appeared on the main media channels – BBC, ITV and Sky – as well as some of the more specialist programmes such as Law in Action, Woman’s Hour, Question Time, Any Questions and the Briefing Room. She has also written for the Guardian and the Telegraph. She has given evidence to numerous select committees on the legal issues connected with Brexit. She has her own podcast, 2903cb, and she blogs on Brexit, mainly for the http://ukandeu.ac.uk/.
Mona Næss
Norway, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion, Oslo.
Mona Næss is a Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion, Oslo. She is a Bachelor in social sciences and psychology 1985 and master of Law 1993. Specialist in labor law/EEA labor law. Mona Næss has extensive experience from the Labour Ministry, in addition to a number of years as a private employment lawyer in Oslo. She has also been a Labour and Social councellor at the Norwegian Mission to the EU in Brussels for two periods, most recently from 2017-2021. Næss leads the work on EEA adaptations of labor law in the Ministry in Norway. She was chair of the EFTA’s working group for employment law and health and safety for several periods. She has also been a member of the Lawyer’s Further education center’s professional committee for labour law in Oslo for a period of 15 years. Næss is the author of the books Transfer of undertakings (2013) and Labour Law:. Restructuring, downsizing and transfer of undertakings in the public sector (2nd ed. 2019).
Mona Næss is a Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion, Oslo. She is a Bachelor in social sciences and psychology 1985 and master of Law 1993. Specialist in labor law/EEA labor law. Mona Næss has extensive experience from the Labour Ministry, in addition to a number of years as a private employment lawyer in Oslo. She has also been a Labour and Social councellor at the Norwegian Mission to the EU in Brussels for two periods, most recently from 2017-2021. Næss leads the work on EEA adaptations of labor law in the Ministry in Norway. She was chair of the EFTA’s working group for employment law and health and safety for several periods. She has also been a member of the Lawyer’s Further education center’s professional committee for labour law in Oslo for a period of 15 years. Næss is the author of the books Transfer of undertakings (2013) and Labour Law:. Restructuring, downsizing and transfer of undertakings in the public sector (2nd ed. 2019).
Professor Dr. Gunnar Thor Pétursson
Gunnar Þór Pétursson is a Professor of Law at Reykjavik University and Visiting Professor at Université Paris (II), Panthéon-Assas, Professor Pétursson is a Member of the Financial Supervisory Board – Icelandic Central Bank and an Ad-Hoc Judge at the EFTA Court, Luxembourg. He was formerly the Director at Internal Market Affairs Directorate, EFTA Surveillance Authority, Brussels. Professor Pétursson has published several academic articles and books on EU/EEA law. His research focus is on EU/EEA constitutional law, fundamental rights, free movement and legal theory.
Joao Vale de Almeida
Joao Vale de Almeida, Portugal, Former EU Ambassador to UK, UN and US. Ambassador João Vale de Almeida is a senior European Union diplomat who recently retired from a 40 year long career. His last post was in London as EU Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Before that he had been Ambassador to the United Nations, in New York, and to the United States, in Washington DC. Previously, in Brussels, he served as Chief of Staff to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and as Director-General of External Relations in the European Commission. He was also the EU’s Sherpa for G8 and G20 summits. After retiring in early 2023, Ambassador Vale de Almeida has been Visiting Professor at the University of Columbia, in New York, and Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. He is a member of several foundation and think tank boards.
Adam Pokorny
Germany/UK, Head of the Unit “Labour law” in Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission, Brussels. Pokorny has been head of this unit since 2016. The unit is responsible for the implementation of some twenty EU Directives covering individual and collective rights, notably concerning working time, written statement, fixed-term and part-time work, collective redundancies, information and consultation of workers, transfer of undertakings, European Works Councils, transparent and predictable working conditions. In previous postings in the European Commission he was responsible for the implementation of the European Social Fund and the European Semester policy analysis process for Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia (2012-16), for policy cooperation and funding programmes (Comenius, eTwinning) in the field of school education (2007-12), and on education policy coordination and negotiation of the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme (2001-07). Before entering the European Commission he worked in the UK civil service in the Department for Education (1990-2001).
Global workforce platforms: PEOs, EORs, AORs and other TLAs. The challenges and risks of innovative employment models operating on the European labour market. Is business ahead of law?
Session leader:
Raoul Parekh, UK, Partner at Littler, London.
Session Speakers:
Juan Bonilla, Spain, Partner at Cuatrecasas, Madrid.
Laura Taylor, New Zealand, Legal Counsel at Rippling, London.
Tiffany Cruz, US, Sr. Employment Counsel Manager – Global at G-P / Globalization Partners, Orange County, California.
Raoul Parekh
Juan Bonilla
Laura Taylor
Tiffany Cruz
Raoul Parekh
Raoul Parekh, UK, Partner at Littler, London. Raoul works across all areas of employment law, including advisory, litigation and transactional support. He focuses on supporting multi-national clients with their employment advice and litigation needs across EMEA. Raoul acts for several employers of record, advising them on their UK and international employment compliance strategy and other issues. He has written and spoken about the rise of EORs and the related employment issues. Raoul started his legal career with Baker McKenzie in London, and became a partner at Littler in 2018.
Juan Bonilla
Juan Bonilla, Spain, Partner at Cuatrecasas, Madrid. Juan Bonilla is an expert in contract terminations, employee compensation schemes, particularly share-based schemes and in the labor implications of corporate transactions, advising clients and handling litigation matters. He has extensive experience in advising international clients on transnational labor transactions, particularly in the European Union and in Latin America. He is a member and a former Chair of the Employment and Industrial Relations Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA). He was director of the Global Equity Organization (GEO) and is also a member of the European Employers Lawyers Association (EELA) and the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA), as well as the American Employment Law Council (AELC). He is Magister Juris by the University of Oxford and speaks regularly on labor law and share-based compensation schemes at international conferences and in postgraduate courses. He has published several articles on labor law in local and international publications.
Laura Taylor
Laura Taylor, New Zealand, Legal Counsel at Rippling. Laura focuses on product, employment and privacy for the Rippling Employer of Record product. Prior to Rippling, Laura specialised in employment law and privacy, working both in private practice and in-house in the SAAS space. Laura has extensive experience across the UK/EU and APAC.
Tiffany Cruz
Tiffany Cruz, US, Sr. Employment Counsel Manager – Global at G-P / Globalization Partners, Orange County, California.. Based in Southern California, Tiffany is an engineer-turned-lawyer with unique expertise concerning Global EOR and U.S.-based PEO platforms. After litigating employment law cases for employers for nearly a decade, she pivoted and moved in-house to use her legal expertise to enhance the employment compliance and business of a large U.S.-based PEO. After an unexpected introduction to G-P in 2021, she joined the company with excitement to expand her legal work beyond the U.S. borders. At G-P, Tiffany leads a team of attorneys and her Global EOR work focuses on providing strategic-yet-pragmatic employment law guidance to various stakeholders to establish new G-P entities globally and tackling unique employment law topics that G-P’s Global EOR platform presents. When not on a Zoom call with G-P team member or local counsel who is located across the U.S. or across the globe, or teaching an evening contract drafting course at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, Tiffany enjoys spending quiet time at the beach, cooking with her family, and binge-worthy Netflix movies.
Non-compete bans: Is it really the end of the road for post-employment restrictive covenants and time has come for alternative arrangements ?
Session leader:
Andrew Spital, US, Partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, New York.
Session Speakers:
Elena Ryolo, Italy, Partner at Legance, Milan.
Christel Søreide, Norway, Partner at Wiersholm, Oslo.
Rando Maisvee, Estonia, Partner at Moss Legal, Tallinn.
Paul Goulding, UK, KC, Blackstone Chambers, London.
Andrew Spital
Elena Ryolo
Christel Søreide
Rando Maisvee
Paul Goulding
Andrew Spital
Andrew Spital is a partner in the Litigation Department and Chair of the Employment Litigation & Counseling Practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, New York, where he represents companies and individuals in a variety of complex commercial disputes with a focus on employment and class action litigation. Areas of experience include antidiscrimination laws, wage-and-hour regulations, contractual disputes and HR compliance. Andrew also regularly advises clients on HR issues, internal investigations, overtime compliance and risk mitigation. Education: University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 2006, Cornell University, B.A., 2003.
Elena Ryolo
Elena Ryolo is a Partner at Legance, Milan. Elena is a senior employment expert advising Italian and foreign clients in a variety of contexts, ranging from large industrial concerns to innovative start-ups and hi-tech companies, both in domestic and cross-jurisdiction scenarios. She has experience of identifying and managing HR-related implications within the frame of corporate transactions and a solid expertise in reorganization/downsizing processes, including in industrial relations. She regularly advises on the definition of agreements with senior executives, also in regulated sectors and with reference to compensation and co-investment agreements. Elena supports clients in the set-up of retention and incentive mechanisms, as well as in the definition of non-compete, non-solicit and confidentiality covenants, in situations where the protection of corporate know-how is highly focused. Since 2020 Elena has also been included in The Legal 500 rankings as Leading Individual. In 2023 Elena also entered the rankings of Chambers and Partners, following solid praise from market sources.
Christel Søreide
Christel Søreide is a Partner at Wiersholm, Oslo. Christel heads Wiersholms employment law team and has extensive experience within employment law and dispute resolution. She assists Norwegian and international clients with processes such as reorganisation and downsizing, business transfers, hiring and termination of employment, whistleblower cases and discrimination issues as well as litigation and negotiations. Chambers and Partners and the Norwegian Financial Daily have ranked Christel as one of Norway’s leading employment lawyers.
Rando Maisvee
Rando Maisvee is the founder and attorney-at-law in an Estonian boutique law firm Moss Legal. He is a well-known employment law specialist and has vast experience in litigation and proceedings of utmost complexity and interactions with several procedures and branches of law. He has been awarded for several consecutive years and holds currently highest recommendation (Chambers Band 1) as specialist in business related employment matters. He is an active member in the European Employment Lawyers Association and the Employment Commission of Estonian Bar Association, as well as acts as an Estonian Employers’ Confederation appointed member of the Estonian Employment Dispute Committee.
Paul Goulding
Paul Goulding, UK, KC, Blackstone Chambers, London. Paul is widely recognised as one of the top silks in employment law. He regularly appears in the High Court, Employment Tribunal, the appellate courts and arbitrations (both as arbitrator and advocate). He has been involved in many of the leading cases involving restrictive covenants and team moves, whistleblowing, discrimination, employment status and bonus claims. He recently successfully defended a global bank in the leading case on an employer’s duty of care and duty to indemnify an employee. Much of Paul’s practice concerns disputes involving financial institutions and professional service firms, often with a regulatory dimension, as well as cross-border disputes. He has appeared in cases arising out of regulatory investigations into LIBOR, FX and sanctions breaches. Paul is also highly experienced in sports law, and is a member of the Football Association’s Judicial Disputes Panel. Paul won the Employment Silk of the Year 2023 at the Chambers & Partners Bar Awards and was nominated for Senior Counsel of the Year 2023 at the International Employment Lawyer Awards.
Bridging the gender and ethnicity pay gap: Breaking barriers, fostering transparency and embracing workplace equity
Session leader:
Stefanie Tack, Belgium, Partner at Strelia, Brussels.
Session Speakers:
Emma Smith, UK, Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase & Co., London.
Daniel Cifuentes, Spain, Partner at Perez-Llorca, Madrid.
Dagný Aradóttir Pind, Iceland, lawyer at BSRB, Federation of State and Municipal Employees, Reykjavík.
Stefanie Tack
Emma Smith
Daniel Cifuentes
Dagný Aradóttir Pind
Stefanie Tack
Stefanie Tack, Partner and head of the Employment & Benefits practice at Strelia in Brussels. She is also vice-chair of the HC&T Committee AmCham Belgium. Stefanie has more than 15 years of experience in advising clients on all aspects of individual and collective labor law. She advises clients on the general employment policy of their company, the hiring of personnel and the termination of employment contracts, the drafting of employment-related documents, compensation and benefits, employees’ representative bodies within the company, social elections and protected employees, the restructuring of the company, and the labor and employment law aspects of M&A transactions. She also does employment litigation before the Belgian courts.
Emma Smith
Emma Smith, Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London (UK). Emma has been working for JPMorgan since 2014, and, prior to that, she was a Barrister in London.
Daniel Cifuentes
Daniel Cifuentes, Partner at Perez-Llorca in Madrid. Daniel provides advice to large multinational companies in all areas of labour and social security law, including advice in the execution and termination of agreements with senior executive managers, as well on contractual and remuneration issues (including the implementation of stock options plans) and on labour issues arising in all types of commercial transactions, analysing the different questions relating to the subrogation of companies. He also advises on collective matters and in litigation before the labour courts in all kinds of proceedings. Daniel also provides advice on sport law to sportsmen in their contract negotiations and disputes, as well as to clubs, agents and sport associations. Daniel is Professor of Law (employment law) at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Dagný Aradóttir Pind
Dagný Aradóttir Pind, lawyer at BSRB, which is the largest federation of public worker unions in Iceland (Federation of State and Municipal Employees). Some previous experiences include working as an attorney at trade unions and as an equality officer at the University of Iceland and various jobs in the marketing and communications department at that same university. She has an LL.M. in labour law and employment relations from Tilburg University and B.A. and Mag. Jur. degrees in Law from the University of Iceland.
Transforming Legal Practice: The AI Revolution in Law Firms
Session leader:
Elizabeth Ryan, Ireland, Partner at Mason Hayes & Curran, Dublin.
Session Speakers:
Román Gil Alburquerque, Spain, Sagardoy Abogados
Harry Borovick, UK, General Counsel at Luminance, London.
Marc André Gimmy, Germany, Partner at Taylor Wessing, Düsseldorf.
Emily Lamm, US, Associate Attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Washington D.C.
Elizabeth Ryan
Harry Borovick
Román Gil Alburquerque
Marc André Gimmy
Emily Lamm
Harry Borovick
Harry Borovick, UK. Harry Borovick is General Counsel of Luminance which provides advanced AI for the processing of legal documents. As well as working at the forefront of the development of AI for legal operations, Harry is a lecturer at Queen Mary University London on applied legal AI and a visiting lecturer at the University of Law on contract law and commercial drafting. Harry currently sits as an AI advisor to the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and most recently contributed to Legal Operations in the Age of AI and Data.
Román Gil Alburquerque
Román Gil is a Spanish lawyer, partner of Sagardoy Abogados, a boutique firm specialized in Labour and Employment Law. He has extensive experience in litigation and negotiation in his area of expertise, with a specialization in top management and restructuring. He works mostly with international clients.
He teaches Labour & Employment law at the Universidad de Navarra and at IE Law School and is currently a corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. He has authored books and articles of his field of expertise, among them as co-director of „EU Social Law. Its application by the ECJ“, soon to be published in English. He is currently investigating and publishing on AI, labour relations and the legal practice.
His professional merits have been acknowledged by Chambers (Band 1) and by Who’s Who Legal, repeatedly recognizing him as Thought Leader and Global Elite Lawyer.
Marc André Gimmy
Marc André Gimmy, Germany, Partner at Taylor Wessing, Düsseldorf. Marc André is a specialist lawyer for employment law and co-heads the international Practice Group Employment, Pensions & Mobility. He specialises in advising national and international companies, inter alia, on issues concerning collective employment law in the area of the law on labour relations at the workplace and the law concerning collective bargaining, as well as on the planning and implementation of restructuring measures. He also has special expert experience in advising companies on all matters relating to employment law arising from and in connection with the use of new media in the employment relationship and employee data protection. His clients also include Spanish companies and institutions in Germany. Marc André is a member of the Management Board of Taylor Wessing Germany.
Emily Lamm
Emily Lamm, US, Associate Attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Washington D.C. Her practice has a dual focus on artificial intelligence (AI) matters and employment litigation, counseling, and investigations. Leveraging her deep knowledge of rapidly evolving AI-related laws, regulations, and frameworks, Emily helps companies develop a strategic and practical approach to crafting and implementing AI policies, programs, and legal risk mitigation strategies. Emily has worked directly with a leading cloud service provider to develop an international compliance plan for cutting-edge AI and machine-learning tools, including large language models. She has also advised AI developers and deployers across industries regarding compliance with the CCPA/CPRA, the EU AI Act, New York City’s Local Law 144, the Illinois AI Video Interview Act, and other federal, state, and international AI, employment, and data protection laws. Emily is a thought leader in this space, regularly speaking and writing on AI issues in employment. She also serves on the Advisory Council of the Vanderbilt AI Law Lab (VAILL). Emily is a member of the Associates Committee and co-chairs both the LGBTQ+ Subcommittee and Women’s Subcommittee in the Washington, D.C. office, is an associate trustee for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and is a co-chair of the Associates Committee of the D.C. Chapter of the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law. Emily has been selected as a Leadership Council for Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinder for 2024. Emily was also selected as a member of Law360’s 2022 Diversity & Inclusion Editorial Advisory Board and maintains an active pro bono practice focused on LGBTQ+ issues. Emily is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the American Bar Association (ABA) where she is an appointed member of the Young Lawyers’ Advisory Panel (YLAP) of the Privacy and Information Security Committee (PRIS) and serves as a Special Counsel on the ABA Antitrust PRIS Panel Program on Cloud Technologies. Emily holds a certificate on Artificial Intelligence for Decision Making from Wharton.
Affirmative Action – How Appropriate is it to Rely on it to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in Work?
Session leader:
Aisling Muldowney, partner at A&L Goodbody solicitors, Dublin, Ireland
Session Speakers:
Tahl Tyson, USA, Littler, Shareholder – dual-qualified EU/US lawyer (US – Seattle/UK – London).
Bernd Weller, Germany, Partner at Heuking, Frankfurt/Stuttgart.
Philippe De Wulf, Belgium, Employment Partner at ALTIUS, Brussels
Aisling Muldowney
Tahl Tyson
Bernd Weller
Philippe De Wulf
Aisling Muldowney
Aisling Muldowney | A&L Goodbody LLP| Dublin (algoodbody.com)
Aisling advises both domestic and international clients in relation to a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious employment law issues as well having a busy corporate advisory practice. She recently rejoined A&L Goodbody’s partnership having worked with Google’s EMEA Employment Team for nearly 3 years. She has developed a particular expertise in issues facing employers in the tech sector and is known for her strategic and practical advice to clients in respect of mergers, acquisitions and disposals, corporate restructurings, large scale collective redundancies, TUPE, harmonization of employee terms and conditions, and advising on all employment aspects of large global outsourcings.
Aisling regularly advises HR professionals on a range of employment related issues such as how to manage difficult employees in areas such as disciplinary procedures, performance review, absenteeism issues, and incidents of alleged bullying and harassment (including sexual harassment); advising on all aspects of employment related data protection, corporate immigration; managing the use of atypical workers in the workplace, advising clients on how to handle breaches of its intellectual property by employees and former employees, and general day-to-day employment related issues.
Aisling has acted for a range of public and private sector clients in respect of unfair dismissals, personal injuries, injunctions, equality claims, agency worker and fixed-term worker disputes, and judicial review proceedings and represented employers in the Irish High Court, Court of Appeal, Circuit Court and the Workplace Relations Commission.
Tahl Tyson
Tahl Tyson has been practicing law for over three decades, much of which has been advising management side businesses as a UK employment law solicitor (admitted in England and Wales), based in Seattle Washington. Having been raised by psychoanalysts in 1970’s London, and having lived, studied and worked in a number of countries, Tahl views many workplace situations as having both psychological and cultural aspects that are essential for employment lawyers to understand. She finds people and employment law endlessly fascinating and believes that employment lawyers can and do improve many lives in different ways through what we do.
Bernd Weller
Bernd Weller is a Partner at Heuking. Since more than 20 years, Bernd Weller is a dedicated labour and employment lawyer, representing the company side in all kinds of issues – inside and outside of the court, predominantly vis-à-vis works councils and trade unions. He co-heads the labour & employment practise group of Heuking [effective early 2024 we will rebrand and the be named only “Heuking”] and is always happy to find people who are not tired yet of listening to him. To prepare for tough negotiations with the employee side, Bernd trains Karate.
Philippe De Wulf
Philippe heads the Employment team at ALTIUS. He advises and assists Belgian and international corporations as well as senior executives in non-contentious and contentious employment matters across various sectors from ICT and automotive to retail, hotels and chemicals. He has particular expertise in the employment, social security and pensions aspects of mergers and acquisitions and workforce restructuring. As an experienced litigator, Philippe represents clients in a wide range of employment and social security disputes (including discrimination cases).
Workplace Investigations – An Interactive Masterclass
Session leader:
Anne Pritam, UK, Partner at Stephenson Harwood LLP, London.
Session Speakers:
Mohinderpal Sethi KC, UK, Littleton Chambers, London
Daniela David, Romania, Senior Partner, Vernon David, Bucharest.
Bryan Black, Switzerland/Ireland, Head of European Legal Affairs at Incyte Corporation, Morges.
Anne Pritam
Mohinderpal Sethi
Daniela David
Bryan Black
Anne Pritam
Anne Pritam, UK Partner, Stephenson Harwood LLP, London. A specialist in employment law for over 25 years, with extensive experience of a variety of employers in a wide range of sectors including financial services and professional services, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and energy; Anne has acted for clients with a handful of employees through to those with hundreds of thousands. She advises listed boards, private companies, partnerships and LLPs, family businesses, domestic households and individuals and has conducted and overseen numerous workplace investigations.
Mohinderpal Sethi
Mohinderpal Sethi KC, UK, Littleton Chambers, London. Mo is a top-ranked silk in UK, EU and Middle East employment law, regularly appearing at the highest levels in domestic, international and offshore courts and tribunals. He has been instructed in many of the leading employment law cases ranging from employee competition injunctions and team moves to whistleblowing and discrimination. He recently defended a foreign state in the UK Supreme Court against groundbreaking employment claims brought under public international law. He also recently defended a global bank in the first ever discrimination trial heard in the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts. He has led a number of high-profile cross-border corporate investigations and inquiries often involving matters of considerable market and political sensitivity. Mo is the immediate past Chair of the UK’s Employment Law Bar Association. In 2022 he won Civil Lawyer of the Year (ALA) and was Barrister of the Year Finalist (The Lawyer). In 2023 he won both Employment Silk of the Year (Legal 500) and Senior Counsel of the Year (International Employment Lawyer). He is co-author of Employment Tribunal Remedies (OUP) and Termination of Employment (Bloomsbury).
Daniela David
Daniela David, Romania, Senior Partner, Vernon David, Bucharest. Daniela (Dana) is the head Vernon David’s litigation department and has significant experience in labour matters and commercial and civil litigation. Besides being an active arbitrator, she is also a licensed mediator. Dana is one of Romania’s leading labour litigation lawyers and has significant experience in complex employment disputes, including advising on senior management misconduct “sensitive” investigations, compliance issues and termination cases. In addition, she is an expert in large collective dismissals and employment issues related to company restructuring activities. Over the last few years she has worked on some of Romania’s largest labor projects and matters, including advising on several bank acquisitions. In the last few years, several of Dana’s cases have “made law”, including a case which defined and limited the concept of “occupational disease” as well as the leading against the Romanian State involving green certificates.
Bryan Black
Bryan Black is Vice President, Head of European Legal Affairs at multinational pharmaceutical company Incyte. He is responsible for the full scope of European Legal Affairs, and is a member of Incyte’s European Strategic Leadership Team and its Global Legal Leadership Team. He manages Incyte’s legal affairs in Europe as lead in-house counsel for all general corporate functions, including commercial, intellectual property, medical affairs, pharmacovigilance, finance, human resources, manufacturing, regulatory and communications. His in-house career in the pharmaceutical sector began in 2002, and he has worked for world-class companies including Novartis and Schering-Plough. Originally from Ireland, Bryan’s career has also taken him to Germany and the USA. He has lived in Switzerland for the past 15 years.
Responding to workplace climate challenges in the ‘global boiling’ era
Session leader:
Professor Dr. Björn Gaul, Germany, Partner at CMS Hasche Sigle.
Session Speakers:
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Iceland, Chairman of Arctic Circle and former President of Iceland
Adriano Gomez, Spain, Partner at Garrigues, Madrid.
Halldór Þorgeirsson, Iceland, Chair of the Icelandic Climate Council, Reykjavík
Feliciano F. González Muñoz, Spain, Head of Group Human Resources at Holcim Group Services Ltd., Zug.
Prof. Dr. Björn Gaul
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Adriano Gomez
Halldór Þorgeirsson
Feliciano F. González Muñoz
Professor Dr. Björn Gaul
Professor Dr. Björn Gaul is a Partner at CMS Hasche Sigle and a specialist lawyer for labor & employment law and has been a partner at CMS Hasche Sigle since 2000. He chairs an employment law working groups for HRO, is a regular speaker and advisor at national and international conferences of decision-makers with HR responsibility and a member of the DAV’s Employment Law Committee, an officer on the Employment and Industrial Relations Law Committee of the IBA, a member of the EELA, the ABA and a member of the HR-Tech Ethics Advisory Board. He also teaches as an professor at the University of Cologne with the venia legendi for civil law, commercial law and labor & employment law.
Adriano Gomez
Adriano Gomez, Spain, Partner at Garrigues, Madrid. Adriano specializes in labor litigation before the various tribunals in the labor jurisdiction, both in collective and individual proceedings. He also advises on collective and individual dismissals, outsourcing projects; corporate restructurings (homogenization of contractual conditions and integration of groups); senior management contracts; compliance; administrative proceedings brought by the labor inspectorate and social security authorities; material change of working conditions, as well as labor due diligence. He lectures on Procedural Employment Law, Master’s Degree in Labor Law Counseling, Centro de Estudios Garrigues. Speaker in the Master Executive for Industrial Relations at Centro de Estudios Garrigues. Speaker in the Company Restructuring Program at IE Law School. Adriano is member of Madrid Bar Association, the Employment Lawyers Association (EELA), Foro Español de Laboralistas (FORELAB) and Asociación Nacional de Laboralistas (ASNALA).
Halldór Þorgeirsson
Halldór has been the Chair of the Icelandic Climate Council since 2018. He served as senior director at the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) in Bonn for fourteen years (2004-2018). His responsibilities included managing substantive support to international climate negotiations culminating in the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. In that capacity he also contributed to the conception of the global climate action agenda, managed the interface with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and with ILO on the treatment of just transition in the agreement.
As a climate negotiator for Iceland, Halldór had served as the Chair of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) for a two-year term. He holds a Ph.D. in Plant Ecophysiology from Utah State University.
Feliciano F. González Muñoz
Feliciano F. González Muñoz, Spain, Head of Group Human Resources at Holcim Group Services Ltd., Zug.
Feliciano F. González Muñoz is the Head of Group Human Resources at Holcim Group Services Ltd. Feliciano has developed his career for more than thirteen years in senior Human Resources roles in the Group. Before his current role he was Human Resources Director for Europe, Group Head of Labor Relations, and also interim CEO of Spain from 2013 to 2015. Before joining Holcim, Feliciano developed his career at Fujitsu Ltd., building materials company BPB plc and pharmaceutical company Almirall. Feliciano holds a PhD in Labor Law from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and an Executive MBA from IE Business School, Madrid. He is a Spanish national and was born in 1963.
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson- Iceland, Chairman of Arctic Circle and former President of Iceland
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson served as President of Iceland for twenty years, 1996-2016; elected five times in nationwide elections. Previously, he was Minister of Finance, Member of Parliament, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the first Professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland. He now serves as Chairman of Arctic Circle, which he founded in 2013 with various Arctic partners. The Arctic Circle Assembly held in Iceland every October has become the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries. Arctic Circle also organizes specialized Forums in other countries; so far, in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Before and after his presidency, President Grímsson has worked closely with members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate as well as with many key members of governments in European countries. For decades, he has been an active participant in the global climate dialogue and during his Presidency and in recent years initiated and promoted clean energy projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the United States and the Americas; especially using Icelandic achievements and technologies as a model. He was the Chairman of a commission established by IRENA on the new geopolitics emerging from global renewable energy transformation. Grímsson served on the Advisory Board of Sustainable Energy for All, created by the United Nations and the World Bank. In addition to devoting his post-presidential efforts to the three areas of climate, the Arctic and clean energy, Grímsson is also involved in international cooperation on the oceans and the evolution of sustainable use of marine resources.
President Grímsson has received many international awards, including the Nehru Award for International Understanding, presented to him by the President of India.