The number of law firms facing litigation under Transfer of Undertakings, Protection of Employment (TUPE) regulations has risen sharply, the Gazette has learned.

Gordon Turner (pictured), employment specialist at London firm Partners Law, said he has acted on nine cases where law firms have been sued under TUPE regulation since March this year.

Under the regulations, where a law firm wins a client from another firm, any lawyers working exclusively for that client have the right to transfer to the new firm. If the new firm refuses to take on the lawyers, or declines to consult with them, there may be a case for unfair dismissal.

Turner said lawyers are becoming increasingly aggressive at using the legislation because, if they are made redundant from their existing firm because the client has been lost, economic conditions mean they face the likelihood of months or even years of unemployment.

He said most of the cases he had dealt with involved insurance or financial clients. One recent case was for lawyers at a firm dealing with all of one insurer’s personal injury cases.

Turner said the ‘arrogance of the all-seeing solicitor’ was at the root of the problem, with firms reluctant to admit they needed to seek specialist employment advice. He added that finding out firms were under a duty to take on a group of solicitors from another firm was like being faced with an ‘epic blind date’. It was particularly difficult, he said, because firms had often won the client in the first place by ‘paring costs to the bone’.

Employment lawyer Darren Clayton, a partner at City firm Doyle Clayton, said TUPE cases were definitely ‘rising’. He said: ‘The debate is over. As with discrimination legislation, TUPE is an extra cost for the business community, but it is good for employees and it is here to stay.’

As the Gazette reported in March, the first TUPE case involving law firms found in favour of staff from Liverpool firm Lees Lloyd Whitley who made a claim against Southport firm Barnetts when it took over the Britannia account.