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Nick Dent

Partner, London

Nick is a Partner in the UK Employment Team at DWF and heads up the London Employment practice.
Nick Dent

Experience

Nick has been an Employment lawyer in the City ever since he qualified 30 years ago and a partner across four firms for the last 20 years.  He advises employers on the full range of their employment issues, including high-value discrimination, whistleblowing and bonus claims. Nick has particular experience in advising on restrictive covenant disputes and team move litigation, especially in the London insurance market, and an ever-increasing part of his practice involves the co-ordination of cross-border employment issues and collaboration with DWF's employment team globally. 

In the regulated sector, he has deep experience acting for insurance brokers and underwriters, banks, private equity firms (both on their own internal issues and their investee companies), wealth and asset managers and hedge funds.  He frequently advises on collective redundancies, as well as the employment aspects of outsourcing and M&A transactions.

Among other notable matters, Nick has also led the teams advising:

  • Willis Re on its three week 2025 speedy trial in the High Court defending the claim brought by Guy Carpenter relating to the hire of 22 brokers in London and Bermuda
  • An insurance broker and 11 co-defendants on the defence of High Court proceedings brought by a competitor relating to the recruitment of six brokers
  • Argus Media on ‎its successful enforcement in injunction proceedings ‎and a speedy trial of a 9 month non-‎competition ‎covenant
  • A PR company on a ‎resolution, shortly before the hearing of an ‎injunction, of a ‎disputed team move, including negotiations with five separate sets ‎of lawyers
  • A Lloyd’s underwriting firm on its defence of an ‎application for an injunction following the ‎recruitment of a team, and on the subsequent regulatory investigation ‎by Lloyd’s 
  • Engelhart Commodity Trading Partners on the co-ordination of a restructuring project across 21 jurisdictions and then on the employment aspects of its merger with Trailstone
  • A US company on employment documentation across 44 countries
  • The Financial Times on all its employment law issues since ‎‎2005, including the restructuring of ‎its print and online Editorial ‎functions and the associated union ‎‎consultation 
  • A global corporate bank on a 17 day disability claim for career loss damages, including the strike-out of ‎a claim against its chief executive personally
  • A professional services company on a long dispute with an ‎employee with likely undiagnosed mental health issues, with interlocking performance management ‎and disciplinary issues, multiple ‎grievances ‎and a Tribunal claim 
  • Refuge Assurance and United Friendly Insurance on their successful defence in the Tribunal and EAT in the leading reported case brought by the MSF union for failure to consult on the 1,700 redundancies arising from their merger
  • Listed Australian company Treasury Wine Estates on the TUPE issues arising from the termination of its bottling and warehousing contracts and re-contracting with a new provider
  • Financial institutions, hedge funds and asset and wealth ‎managers on the full range of employee relations issues, from ‎collective redundancies to numerous seven figure discrimination claims and partnership disputes, as well as a six month secondment to a clearing bank
  • Growing up as an associate working for bulge bracket investment banks, including Deutsche Bank on its integration of Bankers Trust and Credit Suisse on its integration of DLJ
  • Private equity firms, hedge funds and executives on ‎complex remuneration structures such as carried interest and co-‎investment schemes and their impact on termination of ‎employment
  • Private equity firms on the key employee relations issues ‎arising in their investee companies, and investee company ‎management teams on their position on entry to and exit ‎from PE ownership

Memberships


  • Employment Lawyers Association