Whistleblowing complaints have been on the rise since the start of the covid-19 pandemic and businesses are expected to face even more reports as workers begin to return to their workplaces over the coming months. With new whistleblower laws being discussed around the globe – including in Europe where a new EU directive will soon be implemented – multinational employers must consider how to implement effective whistleblower channels across the various jurisdictions they operate in.

IEL is partnering with a panel of expert lawyers from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to offer employers, HR professionals, and in-house counsel advice on:

• Current and predicted whistleblowing trends.
• Upcoming legislative changes from around the globe.
• Establishing effective internal whistleblowing channels.
• The pros and cons of non-disclosure agreements in whistleblowing cases.
• Managing litigation and reputation risk.

Speakers: 

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Stephanie Chiu, Counsel, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Hong Kong)

Stephanie has a broad range of experience advising on employment, pensions, and benefits issues in an advisory, transactional, and contentious context.

She regularly advises employers on compliance with employment and privacy legislation in Hong Kong and on issues surrounding recruitment and redundancies. She has particular experience with cross-border work and regularly advises employers on the employment aspects of international mergers and acquisitions as well as cross-border investigations. She also helps clients design and implement different types of employee share incentive schemes, including restricted share unit schemes and share option schemes. 

Stephanie also advises on employment disputes including breach of employment contract, variation of terms of employment, breach of restrictive covenants, and discrimination in the workplace.

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Thomas Granetzny, Counsel, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Düsseldorf, Germany)

Thomas specialises in company pension schemes, compliance issues, and individual and collective labour law matters, particularly in connection with complex and cross-border M&A transactions and restructurings. Another area of expertise is employee data protection.

Thomas advises on various employment issues, including pension law matters. Thomas' area of expertise also includes advising on sensitive compliance matters, whistleblowing structures, and international cross-border investigations. A particular focus of his is striking the right balance between compliance requirements, labour law, and data privacy restrictions. In connection with his work for US clients, Thomas regularly works from Freshfield's New York office.

Thomas is a lecturer for employment law at the University of Bonn. In addition, he regularly publishes in legal journals on a wide range of employment law issues, including whistleblower and compliance issues. He has recently been recognized by national and international ranking tables for law firms as being one of the best employment lawyers in Germany.

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Holly Insley, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (London, UK)

Holly advises on the employment and incentives aspects of international transactions, as well as covering a broad base of stand-alone advisory and contentious employment and incentives work. 

Holly has a wide-ranging contentious practice, with experience of litigating in the High Court, Employment Tribunal, Employment Appeal Tribunal, and Court of Appeal. She also regularly undertakes investigations into sensitive employment-related issues, as well as advising on the employment aspects of regulatory and competition-related investigations. Holly has a particular interest in the drivers of corporate culture and the impact of culture on employee conduct. 

Holly has a number of clients in the financial services sector and advises regularly on the employment aspects of operating within the regulatory environment, including expectations in respect of whistleblowing arrangements, the investigation of employee misconduct and the application of malus and clawback to employee compensation. 

In the transactional sphere, Holly advises on both public and private mergers and acquisitions and has a particular interest in the complexities of managing post-transaction integration issues, both from the perspective of the legal risks that can arise when harmonising terms or reducing headcount, and the challenges in combining different organisational cultures.

Holly also advises on business reorganisations, executive remuneration issues, corporate governance, and senior hiring and departures.