5 years of Team Torque

The time that’s passed since we started Torque Law has gone in the blink of an eye.  The steep learning curve of our early days will be shared with anyone who’s ever wondered “how hard can it be?” and started their own business. We thought it would be worth reflecting on some of our top 5s in that time:

Top 5 Torque Law achievements

1. Winning Niche Law firm at the Yorkshire Legal Awards.
2. Winning the New Business award at the York Press Business Awards.
3. Establishing Torque Law as a recognised employment law expert in the key UK legal directories.
4. Our first reported case in the Employment Appeal Tribunal … and looking forward to another likely one in 2022!
5. Taking our own office premises – and getting the team back into the office after home working.

5 most significant employment law developments

1. Furlough – I mean, none of us had even heard of it until 20 March 2020!  The unprecedented scheme has undoubtedly saved thousands of jobs and in many, but not all, sectors has given us a workforce that are ready and willing when re-opening has been permitted.
2. Brexit – although the immediate employment law changes have been minimal, the potential future simplification of areas such as working time could benefit many employers.  However, Brexit has had a significant impact in labour availability in some sectors leading to great difficulties for some of our clients.
3. Consideration of vulnerabilities – there’s a definite trend towards the consideration of employee vulnerabilities in the workplace outside the traditional scope of discrimination law, from staff suffering from domestic abuse (as supported by the amazing EIDA of which we’re members) and mental health issues, transgender employees (on which more at our October coffee morning) to menopausal employees (see Emma W’s blog here ).  There’s no doubt that this will continue to provide employers with tricky employee relations issues to deal with.
4. Employment status – a continued lack of clarity in this area is frustrating for many employers but this shouldn’t mean that questions in this area aren’t addressed.
5. Employment contracts – the April 2020 update to the minimum information required in employment contracts was missed by many employers in the flurry of COVID-19 and furlough issues, but templates should be checked to ensure compliance.

5 focus points to take us forward

1. Doing work we enjoy for clients we like – this is the mantra we started with and, reflecting back now, we’ve concluded that there’s no reason to change that now.  We know what we’re good at, and we know some damned good people who are good at what we don’t do.
2. To be brilliant and bold – we’ve built a truly specialist practice and we believe that, as a result, we can offer clients our unrivalled expertise with superior quality and best-in-class client care as standard.
3. To be tenacious – we’re used to dealing with complex, high stakes and sensitive employment issues and want to be the natural choice to lead organisations and executives through those matters when they feel that they’re in the eye of the storm.
4. To be allied – because we like to work with clients who share similar values, it makes it easy for us to be by their side as their trusted advisors and confidantes, but also for us to be ready to fight their corner if things become more contentious.
5. To nurture – it matters to us that those we work with can be their best and we’re committed to enabling our team and our clients to excel, but we’re also dedicated to giving back to the community we’re lucky enough to be a part of.

5 lowest moments

1. Homeschooling
2. Homeschooling
3. 10 day isolation
4. Lockdown
5. Did we mention how we didn’t like homeschooling?

5 favourite strictly contestants

Our love of the annual dance bonanza never waivers.  Detailed analysis by our own Queen of the Glitter Balls, Emma W, ensures that the annual sweepstake is a serious affair!  We can’t wait for this year’s competition to get off the ground, but who are our favourite celebrity dancers since we’ve started?

1. Bill Bailey
2. Kelvin Fletcher
3. Alexandra Burke
4. Louise Redknapp
5. Dr Ranj Singh