Toby Pochron
Director
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"I have dealt with many lawyers over my time, having dealt with all the company legalities in my previous roles, and I can honestly say that you have been one of the best - if not the best! Moving forward with the business... you will be the one to help us grow and navigate our way."
Toby Pochron is an experienced employment law solicitor, predominately providing legal advice to business with a particular focus on managing employee issues, including: defending employment tribunal claims, enforcing restrictive covenants / confidentiality provisions, advising businesses on restructuring and consultation exercises, supporting organisations in their employment focussed GDPR compliance programmes, advising on executive dismissal and negotiating severance packages as well as providing TUPE support in corporate transactions. He provides focused and relevant employment law training seminars for businesses, employers and HR professionals.
Toby also specialises in conducting litigation at Employment Tribunals. He performs his own advocacy and regularly appears in tribunals across the country representing clients in both preliminary and final hearings; regularly engaging in advocacy over multi-day hearings relating to complex discrimination or dismissal claims.
Toby provides sensible, pragmatic and commercial advice, advising on how best to manage complicated grievances and disciplinary matters, and he provides straightforward advice on how to practically manage internal investigations and conduct collective consultations.
Hands-on in his approach, he meets with clients to understand their aims and will often chair internal hearings for dismissals, investigations and consultations as well as both disciplinary and grievance meetings.
His legal career began in a trade union law firm in South Yorkshire providing advice to national trade unions and their members, and he uses this experience to guide employers through difficult or challenging trade union negotiations. He also works with senior employees, directors, partners and key stakeholders in negotiating disputes and / or settlement agreements.
Toby is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association. Outside of work, and is an Associate Governor and the Data Protection Officer for William Levick Primary School.
Toby is listed as a Recommended Lawyer in The Legal 500 (2024 edition).
Legal Services
Employment
Recent Work
- Advising on the amalgamation of a multi-site manufacturer in the West Midlands. Engaging in a collective consultation and redundancy exercise involving 100+ staff.
- Large multi-day litigated employment tribunal matters which went to final hearing with listings for a 3 day constructive unfair dismissal claim, an 8 day race discrimination claim and, an 8 day disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments claim.
- Carrying out an internal sexual harassment investigation for a Yorkshire employer inclusive of independently interviewing relevant witnesses and providing a conclusions and recommendations report.
- Assisting a national charity with the screening, recruitment and on-boarding programme for its CEO.
- Assisting circa 200 employees with Settlement Agreements as part of a release scheme from a red brick University.
Latest
- Sheffield Employment and HR Forum: The Freeths Employment Law Round Up 2023
- Freeths advises UniHomes and its founders on a minority investment by LDC
- Employment Training Programme: Employment law for HR
- Employment Training Programme: Conducting successful disciplinary and grievance investigations
- Employment Training Programme: Performance management and difficult conversations
- Employment Training Programme: Discrimination, diversity and inclusion
- Paid Training Session: Employment law for HR (2 day course)
- Sheffield Employment and HR Forum: Managing sickness absence and supporting employees with mental health issues
- Sheffield Employment and HR Forum: Current issues, trends and headaches in employment law and HR
- Employment Training Programme
- In-Person Event – Sheffield Employment and HR Forum: 2022 Employment Law Round Up
- Sheffield Employment and HR Forum: Reaping the benefits of hybrid working
- Disciplinary and Grievance Investigations: how to get a gold star
- Inflation and how to avoid unstable employee relations
- “Long COVID” – a ‘disability’ under the Equality Act 2010?
- Employment Training Programme
- Building a Wellbeing Strategy (Freeths and Cavendish Cancer Care)
- Employment Webinar Series January – March 2022
- HR Matters: Getting the most out of settlement agreements
- HR Matters: Managing mental health and wellbeing issues in the workplace
- Preparing for IR35
- HR Matters: Can I force my employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine? A Q&A session on the most recent HR issues caused by the pandemic
- Be prepared: potential employment law changes to watch out for in 2021
- HR Matters: Employee Absence
- HR Matters: Defending Employment Tribunal Claims
- HR Matters: Streamlining Remote Working
- HR Matters: Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace
- Freeths Advance Webinar: Employees as an asset – 28th July
- IR35 – Are you prepared? – East Midlands Seminar – 3 March 2020
- Employee Culture, Wellbeing & Retention – in Partnership with Glu Recruit & Westfield Health – 18 February
- Conducting Effective Disciplinaries – Employment Event
- Workplace Culture & Wellbeing Charity Seminar with Cavendish Cancer Care and Freeths LLP
- Employment Event – Recruitment and Retention
- Employment Law 2 Day Event – A Practical HR Guide
- Introduction to Employment Law – Employment Law Training Course – Sheffield – 26 September
- Cyber picketing in workplace disputes
- Constructive knowledge of disability – developments in ‘rubber stamping’
To contact Toby or for more information…
Call: 0345 404 4186
Mobile: 0796 744 6213
Or email: Send an email
Employment Lawyers Association
“… a relatively recent addition to the team, Toby’s approach is a blend of pragmatism, sound judgement and commercial understanding.”
“We reached out to Toby to support us with a highly confidential, high profile TUPE process. Toby supported at very short notice, representing our business extremely well and acted as our ‘in-house legal counsel within NTT Data’. Toby joined multiple client negotiations, which were often outside of business hours, which we were immensely appreciative of. The project was a success, with a huge thank you to Toby for his expert guidance, support and contribution. We will be engaging with Toby again shortly to support with further projects.”
(Denise Rogers, Senior HR Business Partner)
“I don’t know what I would have done without you. From taking my ‘emergency SOS’ calls when I was called into the office, helping me when I literally was too scared to go out of the house and basically guiding me through the whole process in a down to earth approach. I had full confidence in you with everything you said and did.”
“You were efficient, straight talking, calm and fully understood the issues and what I was dealing with.”
“Someone once said to me a lawyer should take all your stresses and you did just that. Whenever I talk to anyone about these situations I always say to them ‘I/we have the best lawyer’ and we really do, so thank you.”
‘We work with Toby Pochron, who exemplifies everything we see in Freeths. He offers professional and practical advice that is always specific to our business requirements. He works in close partnership with our teams as a truly trusted adviser.’
(The Legal 500, 2024)
‘Toby Pochron is great to work with and he uses language that helps me understand complex legislation. He never sits on the fence, he always tells me what my options and the risks are and supports me through them. I always feel confident with what I am doing after I have taken advice and support from Toby.’
(The Legal 500, 2024)
“Toby Pochron provides helpful and insightful advice. Freeths are our go-to firm whenever we need legal assistance.”
(The Legal 500, 2023)
“I work mainly with Toby Pochron – he is really good at getting back to us, he provides great practical advice – he has been a life saver this year and saved me so much time and helped with really complex problems within our workforce. Being able to contact him at the drop of a hat has meant that a lot of the stress has been lifted! Can’t recommend him too highly.”
(The Legal 500, 2022)
Client service
‘Doing the right thing’ is at the heart of Freeths. Find out more about our excellent client service and the strong set of values that guide the way we work.
Talk to us
Freeths are a leading national law firm with 13 offices across the UK. If you have a query about our services or just want to find out more, why not give us a call?
Contact: 03301 001 014