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.

• 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 in the Queen’s Bench Division 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 advised a large hotel group in relation to competition by a former director following entry into restrictive covenants in a Mediation Agreement.
• Dale successfully defended an injunction application in respect of a tech specialist employee seeking to leave his firm to join a competitor.
• Dale acted for a claimant in a team move case in the trade displays business against seven defendants, including the new employer, enforcing restrictive covenants and obtaining a springboard injunction.
• Defended a confidential information injunction on behalf of a senior tech employee.
• Dale acted for a high-end English sparkling wine company concerning their acquisition of a senior employee from a competitor.
• Having successfully resisted an injunction at the interim stage, Dale acted for the Defendants at trial in the restrictive covenant dispute in Romero Insurance Brokers Ltd v. Templeton. The case dealt with the correct test for repudiatory breach of contract, the alleged right to work prior to termination of employment and the approach to be taken to the enforceability of the covenants in the context of the insurance industry. The trial figured heavily in the insurance press.
• Dale has also defended injunction proceedings brought against an employee engaged by a new business of a TV celebrity entrepreneur.

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.

• 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).
• Instructed on appeal to act for an employer ordered to pay substantial damages for race discrimination. The appeal raised numerous points of general application in the context of remedies for discrimination.
• Acted at the Employment Tribunal for a trader at a merchant bank, suing for sex and disability discrimination.
• Successful strike out of 800 working time/holiday pay and associated claims brought in the Employment Tribunal against a major construction and highways company. Wasted costs award of £275,000. Also successful in relation to a major res judicata  Defended appeals on strike out and costs.
• Successful defence of a multi-day race and sex discrimination case brought by a solicitor against a law firm, with costs following the earlier obtaining of a deposit order.
• Two appeals to the EAT brought by an internationally renowned music industry celebrity, who kicked a long-term employee/confidante out of his inner circle. The first appeal concerned celebrity’s applications for privacy in the proceedings, namely, restricted reporting orders, anonymity orders and an application in respect of the underlying discrimination trial to be heard in private. The second concerned an appeal from an amendment application.
• Successful appeal to EAT laying down new law on approach to amendment applications in context of a multiple claim, Aldridge v. Amey Services Ltd & another.
• Defending appeal to EAT concerning unless orders and EAT Procedure – Wentworth-Wood v. Maritime Transport Ltd.
• Mustafa v. Trek Highways Ltd Multi-party EAT appeal on TUPE/Service Provision Change resulting from a business failure shortly before new Transport for London contracts for maintenance were due to begin.
• 2 Sisters Food Group Ltd v. Abraityte EAT appeal establishing new law in relation to the approach to be adopted in dealing with applications to amend equal pay claims, particularly regarding changing the job in respect of which the claimant seeks to bring a claim.
• Dale is increasingly selected by law firms to act in respect of their own litigation, enjoying a ‘trusted advisor’ status in difficult disputes.
• Portnykh v. Nomura International plc, and EAT appeal that established important new principles of wide application concerning the without prejudice rule in discrimination 

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.

• Appearing on behalf of a company making its own claim for debt/damages for breach of fiduciary dutiesand contractual obligations against the petitioning director/shareholder in the context of minority shareholder/unfair prejudice proceedings between the two main shareholder/directors of the business (the case settled shortly before trial in 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 dutiesand 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.
• Appearing at a successful mediation of a highly complex and long running multi-million pound computer software dispute.
• Dale acted for a departing director and shareholder of a digital marketing business in unfair prejudice proceedings commenced in the Chancery Division.
• Dale has acted in a number of multi-million pound claims for breach of warranty being brought by purchasers of businesses under Share Purchase Agreements.
• Acting for an employer defending a high court bonus claim brought by a managing director that was guilty of gross misconduct.
• Dale continues to advise on high value bonus and other financial incentive claims. For example, he was instructed to advise on a bonus claim of a Monaco-based employee who entered into contracts with different companies within the employer group, each based in different jurisdictions around the world. He also acted in the Queen’s Bench division defending a claim for a very substantial alleged ‘guaranteed bonus’ brought by a director against Dale’s Indian software solutions client.
• Many of Dale’s cases concern breaches of fiduciary duty, inducement of breach of contract and conspiracy not least his employee competition work.
• Mainline Private Hire Ltd v. Nolan Court of Appeal matter concerning a breach of contract and conversion claim against a former employee and director arising out a directors’ and shareholders’ dispute, following on from an earlier unfair prejudice petition.
• Dale acted in relation to a claim of fraudulent misrepresentation arising out of a share purchase agreement. The Purchaser alleged wholesale fabrication of financial data and obtained a freezing injunction.
• Dale also acts for both shareholder/directors of companies and members of LLPs alleging unfair prejudice and seeking a just and equitable winding up.

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.
• 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 during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Dale lectures across a wide range of issues and enjoys presentations to both solicitors and clients alike. Examples of recent lecture topics are:

• Company Law Essentials for Employment Lawyers;
• Database rights;
• Equal Pay;
• Injunctions;
• TUPE;
• Issues arising with actual or potential concurrent claims in the courts and in the employment tribunal.

• Employment Law Bar Association (ELBA)
• Employment Lawyers’ Association (ELA)
• Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR)