Dale Martin KC

Dale acts in and advises on numerous multi-party injunctive proceedings and related damages claims. Dale’s practice includes search and freezing order relief. He regularly appears in multi-party financial services, insurance and recruitment sector injunctions. This work follows on from Dale’s representation of the successful claimant in the landmark springboard injunction and team move case of QBE v. Dymoke. The case resulted in the first known order for final springboard relief consequent upon breaches of employees’ duties of fidelity and breaches of fiduciary duty whilst in employment.

• Acting for an investment company in respect of a podcast/media company in which it had become a shareholder (leading Blathnaid Breslin), in its own £15m misrepresentation claim against the Company’s CEO and former majority shareholder; and responding to an injunction to prevent forfeiture of shares obtained, without notice to Dale’s client, in order to protect the right to bring an unfair prejudice petition. Dale’s application’s to discharge the shareholding injunction on the basis of material non-disclosure and for an injunction to stay the employment tribunal proceedings was heard in the Chancery Division and led to a hugely favourable (but confidential) settlement involving the withdrawal of claims against Dale’s client after the hearing (2023/4)
• Instructed to defend a team move injunction brought by a leading holiday provider against business sellers and former employees to restrain breaches of a share purchase agreement and employment contracts, misuse of confidential information, for springboard relief and damages for breach of fiduciary duty, contract and confidence. The dispute featured an application for onerous interim relief including the imaging of personal devices. (2023)
• Appeared in a team move injunction application brought against numerous defendants alleging diversion of employees and clients of a large accountancy practice, breach of fiduciary duties and vendor/purchaser and employment restrictive covenants, and claiming springboard relief and orders to prevent misuse of confidential information/imaging of devices. (2022/3)
• Appeared in an injunction application brought against two departing employees in the electronics industry, involving complex legal submissions on the extent of protectable ‘confidential information’ and springboard relief, the limitations of such protection where no (or ineffectual) restrictive covenants are in place and the proper approach to ‘American Cyanamid plus’ in the springboard context. (2022/3)
• Advising one of the world’s leading payment providers concerning the departure of a senior business development employee and giving detailed advice regarding the redrafting, amplification and targeting/application of restrictive covenants in respect of various separate levels and types of employees (2022).
• Advising a large HR and payroll software company with regard to a team move of three related employees to a competitor business (2022).
• Defending an employee and his new employer in the specialist medical supplies industry in respect of a claim for injunctive relief, namely garden leave, post-termination restraints (including non-competition), springboard relief and protection of confidential information (2021).
• Acting on behalf of a boutique and high tech oil/gas company that disciplined its high earning CEO/director/shareholder for sharing confidential information concerning a competitor’s bid in a bid process in which the Company was also participating, in contravention of EU and UK competition law. CEO was recorded covertly and claimed breach of his privacy. Dale advised substantially as to the internal investigation and the shareholder dispute and defended the Company in proceedings. The former CEO intimated minority shareholder proceedings and began an employment tribunal claim (2021).
• Acting for two separate specialist recruitment agencies seeking injunctive relief against departing sales executives who had taken confidential information and joined a competitor in breach of post-termination restraints (2020 and 2021).
• Acted in relation to a claim for a search and seizure injunction on behalf of a trade display business (2020).
• Defending a departing senior employee and new employer in the conference events industry against a claim to enforce post-termination restraints, involving substantial and complex work in relation to a forensic computer investigation (2020).
• Dale acted for an English language college, securing the closure of a competitor website unlawfully established by existing employees of the college (2020).
• Dale acted on behalf of a boutique design consultancy to secure its business following the departure of a salaried partner (2020).
• Dale appeared on behalf of a leading Foreign Exchange company and obtained an injunction to enforce garden leave, post-termination restraints, springboard relief, protection of confidential information and forensic imagining of computer data. FairFX plc Malik & others (2019).
• Dale acted in the Chancery Division for a company resisting an injunction application brought by a minority shareholder in aid of Part 8 construction proceedings following her husband’s dismissal as a director and employee and the application of bad leaver provisions. Glass v. Previse Ltd (2019).
• Dale defended a senior executive departing from a software, business intelligence and data integration company in respect of High Court confidential information proceedings brought against his client (2019).
• Dale acted for a further education college in order to close down a competing training business set up by an existing employee (2019).
• Dale acted for an international property consultancy in Chancery Division proceedings brought against a former employee, following his dismissal for viewing pornography at work and his theft of confidential information, infringement of database rights, unlawful contact of customers and posting of videos on YouTube (2019).

Dale is a discrimination and group litigation specialist. He frequently acts for Respondents/Defendants in both the employment tribunal and civil courts, particularly in the arenas of equal pay, holiday pay, TUPE and collective redundancies. The hallmarks of his practice in this area are the preponderance of appeal work, group litigation of very high value (acting in many thousands of claims for big High Street names) and the technical complexity of his work.

• Acting on behalf of a payment platform provider, successfully resisting an interim relief application brought in the employment tribunal by a founder and director alleging unfair dismissal for making protected disclosures in relation to various alleged frauds committed overseas. (2024)
• Making a successful application to strike out a claim brought by a software developer for detriment on grounds of union membership (2023-2024)
• Dale appeared at the Court of Appeal following a successful three-day appeal to the EAT on requirements for presentation of multiple claims in the context of over 1000 equal pay claims against Dale’s supermarket client Asda Stores Ltd v. Brierley [2019] ICR 910. Dale appeared at the EAT in 2020 in an appeal concerning the requirements for making amendments in tribunal proceedings Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd v. Ahmed. Dale was also instructed in an appeal relating to Early Conciliation certificates in the context of equal pay Clark v. Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd [2023] ICR 20, [2022] IRLR 996.
• In 2023, Dale was instructed (leading Sophia Berry) to defend a large national charity at a 6 day equal pay material factor. The litigation had huge financial consequences because over 1,000 employees carried out the same role as the Claimant.
• Instructed by a $3m p.a. banker to represent him against his former employer (a multi-national bank) in respect of his dismissal and bonus. The case featured an intricate web of complex agreements, share incentive plans giving rise to difficult legal issues relating to discretion and good leaver/bad leaver terms and claims of whistleblowing and associative disability discrimination. (2023)
• Instructed to appear at a 12 day trial on behalf of a senior solicitor and LLP member of a leading international law firm in a complex whistleblowing/unfair dismissal case alleging career long losses. The case involved difficult disclosure and privacy aspects, concerning as it did underlying allegations of improper conduct and negligence in client matters and how those matters had been addressed by the firm. (2023)
• Instructed by a city exec to advance bonus and share option claims challenging the applicability of his written terms, giving rise to issues concerning entire agreement clauses, collateral contracts, contractual discretions and complex forensic and FCA compliance issues. (2023)
• Instructed to defend the majority shareholder in an unfair prejudice petition and tribunal proceedings brought by the minority shareholder and former MD of a company worth in excess of £50m, who was excluded for gross misconduct and breach of fiduciary duty. Also instructed to bring proceedings on behalf of the Company to recover sums owed by the minority shareholder (c£1m). (2023)
• Appearing on behalf of a family property company (c£30m+) in a complex and paper heavy case involving allegations of dishonesty/gross misconduct brought by a former Managing Director claiming both unfair dismissal in the employment tribunal and threatening substantial high court litigation for bonus and salary. An appeal was made to the Employment Appeal Tribunal following Dale’s successful application for a deposit order in the tribunal (2023).
• Instructed to act for a Managing Director working for a boutique financial services business, claiming in respect of her share options, whistleblowing, equal pay and sex and disability discrimination (2023)
• Instructed to defend a claim by a business-seller CEO following a £7m Share Purchase Agreement, entailing disability discrimination, unfair dismissal and unlawful deductions from wages in the employment tribunal allied with civil claims on both sides under the SPA (2022-2023).
• Advising a local authority as to the reach of the Conduct of Employment Agency Regulations 2003 and the legality of using agency labour during industrial action (2023).
• Advising a quasi-governmental organisation as to amendment of its founding legislation and the processes to be observed in order to effect change (2023).
• Instructed to advise a factory operator in relation to prospective litigation on the part of 800+ shop floor workers in respect of national minimum wage claims and related regulatory and criminal sanctions. A highly sensitive and complex case. (2022)
• Advised in a complex employee/worker status class action dispute concerning an online estate agency; an important case for today’s gig economy, involving complex licencing agreements and interposed ‘paper’ companies. Difficult strategic and disclosure issues. (2022)
• Advising a large employer with regard to the application of the National Minimum Wage legislation to operatives at its distribution centre sites. This involved consideration of the highly complex provisions as to classification of workers within the pre- and post-2020 regimes, transitional provisions, calculation of the hours to which the legislation related, payment of workers, the provisions as to fines and penalties and the effect of TUPE transfers in relation to ongoing compliance (2022).
• Advising a university in relation to legal obligations towards teaching staff concerning strikes and action short of a strike, including whether it was unlawful to use recordings of lectures in place of live teaching (2022).
• Instructed by a leading petrochemical institution to appear in a three week employment tribunal trial brought by two traders claiming race discrimination and career-long losses (2021).
• Instructed to appear at a lengthy stage 3 equal value hearing for a supermarket defending multiple equal pay claims brought by numerous female distribution centre workers. Required close working with our own party expert and detailed and careful questioning of the tribunal-appointed independent expert. The case was settled shortly before trial on highly favourable but confidential terms (2020).
• Defending a leading international insurance broker in a multi-day age discrimination and unfair dismissal matter (2020).
• Defending a logistics company in various parts of the UK in respect of thousands of multiple holiday pay claims based on recent developments in EU law (2010-2020).
• Advising the executive team of a public waterway provider in respect of GDPR, their policies and their public sector and other equality duties, and defending the trust in discrimination litigation in respect of the provision of goods and services. (2017-2020).
• Appearing at a (successful) Employment Tribunal judicial mediation in relation to an equal pay claim in the manufacturing industry, highly publicised in the national press (2019).
• Appearing on behalf of a further education college, defending complex disability discrimination proceedings (2019).
• Representing an art gallery faced with a claim of constructive dismissal in respect of an employee contemporaneously running a male escort business (and other businesses) during working time (2019).
• Appearing twice at the EAT on an appeal in a working time/holiday pay multiple concerning strike out for failure to comply with an unless order. Cunning v. Amey Services Ltd (2018-2019).
• Successful in two appeals to the EAT, one on relief from strike out, the other on wasted costs, concerning a different multiple of working time/holiday pay. Bate v. Amey Services Ltd (2018-2019).

Dale continues to advise on a number of shareholder and director disputes in companies and LLPs, often in connection with internal disciplinary proceedings. His work includes advising on the company law, shareholder and employment aspects of private company disputes, often following allegations of unfair prejudice, gross misconduct and/or the departure of the one or more of the directors/shareholders.

• Acting for the Company and Majority Shareholder in a business worth c.£100m in 3 related actions, leading Blathnaid Breslin: defending an unfair prejudice petition valued at £5m and a related employment tribunal claim following dismissal of the Managing Director/Minority Shareholder for fraud, and advancing the Company’s own civil claim in relation to money owed by the MD. Strategically challenging, given the concurrent litigation in different jurisdictions and the Company’s desire to have the civil matters determined ahead of the ET claims (putting the frauds front and centre). Dale is increasingly instructed for his expertise in the often complex, high profile and high stakes shareholder and company aspects of employment litigation. Very favourable settlement following issue of all three sets of proceedings (2023/4)
• Defending a family business worth £30m+ in long-running claims advanced as both civil claims (claim for bonus and alleged backpay totalling £2m+) and in the tribunal (unfair dismissal) by the former managing director following discovery of fraud. A highly sensitive and confidential example of Dale’s practice so far as it relates to executives, breach of fiduciary duties and high net worth individuals. (2021-23)
• Acting for a company following a boardroom bust-up and allegations of fraud and creative accounting by the 49% shareholder, who brought a petition for unfair prejudice against the 51% shareholder and who was accused of diverting business opportunities. Dale acted for the Company which made its own claim for debt/damages for breach of fiduciary duties and contractual obligations against the petitioning director/shareholder. Very complex accounting evidence, a detailed specific disclosure application and strategic/tactical/legal/injunctive questions as to the extent to which a Company can advance its own position in a dispute between shareholders, which should usually be prosecuted by (and paid for) the shareholders themselves. The case settled on very positive terms after a number of hearings, shortly before trial (2022/3)
• Advising a pharmaceutical sales and distribution business as to a damages claim based on a recently discovered but historical multi- million pound diversion of business carried out by its former managing director, who engaged in a covert conspiracy with others to divert business and the loyalty of clients and staff over a course of many months. The case was paper heavy and the investigatory work of piecing together the chronology of unlawful activity was highly complex. (2022/3)
• Instructed by a leading IT provider in relation to a large-scale damages claim for breach of fiduciary duties, contractual obligations and confidence, diversion of business and conspiracy following a team move and the establishment of a competing business that traded with a number of former clients. The case involved complex questions concerning an account of profits, calculation of losses and limitation. (2023)
• Acting for one of two equal shareholders in an electric car battery joint venture with a view to breaking the deadlock in the company. The case featured restrictive covenants in a founders’/shareholders’ agreement, restrictive covenants entered into between companies, unfair prejudice, consideration of an application for a just and equitable winding up of the Company and a complex web of highly bespoke agreements made between the members of the company. (2023)
• Instructed to appear in a 7 day trial in September 2022 brought by a telecommunications company against two directors who were sued for breach of fiduciary duties and pursuant to a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) concerning their alleged establishment of a competing business and other unauthorised activity during employment. The directors counter-claimed for substantial outstanding payments under the SPA (the case settled confidentially shortly before trial).
• Acting in a 15 day breach of fiduciary duty/alleged civil fraud trial arising out of a Share Purchase Agreement with the director and former owner of the business and an alleged related conspiracy with a senior employee. Following Judgment and costs being awarded in his client’s favour, Dale was instructed on two appeals, one on the issue of informed consent in the context of breach of fiduciary duty, one on the requirements of Part 36 Offers. Dale also appeared at the High Court in a related £1m+ claim of misrepresentation and mistake in respect of earn out consideration paid pursuant to the SPA, Reader v. Spie Ltd; Spie UK Ltd v. Garside [2020] EWHC 3743 (QB), [2021] EWHC 1221 (QB).
• Acting for a top flight French football club both at first instance and on appeal in a Brussels Recast jurisdictional dispute concerning a £4m claim against the club, arising out of the alleged enticement away from the claimant of its new manager Letang v. Stade Rennais (2019).

Dale specialises in both advising on and conducting internal investigations in companies, LLPs, partnerships and public bodies in respect of alleged misfeasance and wrongdoing on the part of employees and directors. This work is sensitive and confidential, often aimed at the prevention and/or the minimisation of risk of subsequent litigation. The following are recent examples. Further examples are available on enquiry.

• Advising a law firm dealing with a highly complex confidential and sensitive internal gross misconduct case against a partner in the firm, following the discovery of falsification of court documents, misappropriation of client funds and severe neglect of vulnerable clients, overlayered with potential disability discrimination ramifications.
• Advising a private company on their internal investigation following the sharing by an employee/director/shareholder of commercially sensitive information between competing undertakings in contravention of UK and EU competition law.
• Advising sporting or entertainment businesses with regard to how to handle internal investigations.
• Acting on behalf of a leading regional law firm in two separate confidential internal investigations and the exit of two partners guilty of gross misconduct, poor client service and/or negligence.
• Advising a college on the investigation and disciplinary process concerning a thwarted team move.