header-logo header-logo

04 September 2025
Categories: Movers & Shakers , Profession
printer mail-detail

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

Freeths has appointed Melanie Stancliffe as partner in its employment team, further expanding its national offering. With 25 years’ experience advising senior professionals and international businesses, Melanie brings deep expertise in complex employment matters including senior exits, restrictive covenants, shareholder disputes and litigation.

Melanie has particular sector experience in banking, finance, technology, retail and logistics, and regularly advises owner-managed and cross-border businesses. A fluent French speaker, she also leads the HR Forum at the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, supporting Anglo-French employment issues.

Rena Magdani, partner and national head of employment, pensions and immigration, said: ‘Melanie brings a wealth of experience and will strengthen our ability to support clients with sophisticated workforce challenges.’ She added that the appointment ‘reflects our continued investment’ in building one of the UK’s leading employment practices.

Stancliffe said she was ‘delighted to be joining Freeths’ employment team’ and ‘excited to deliver high-quality results’. Her arrival comes amid rapid growth for the firm’s employment department, which has expanded by 43% over four years, with eight new lawyers joining across seven offices.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Taylor Rose—Jessica Draganescu & Emily Hewlett

Taylor Rose—Jessica Draganescu & Emily Hewlett

Firm strengthens growth strategy and group litigation capability with senior hires

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Londstanding London firm appoints new senior partner

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Commercial team in London welcomes technology specialist as partner

NEWS
Pathfinder courts—renamed ‘Child focused courts’—are to be rolled out nationally, following a successful pilot where backlogs halved and cases were resolved up to seven and a half months faster
The Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed a £385,000 costs order against a father, in a case that centred on what is required to meet the threshold of ‘reprehensible or unreasonable’ behaviour
Centuries-old burial laws would be overhauled, under Law Commission proposals to address the burgeoning problem of shortage of cemetery space
The government has committed an extra £32m to women’s charities and services tackling addiction, trauma, abuse and homelessness
The Financial Ombudsman is poised for major reform to return it to a simple, impartial dispute resolution service
back-to-top-scroll