John Hatton
Principal Associate
Experience
John is a Principal Associate in the Employment & Pensions Division and has been noted as a “Key Lawyer” in the Legal 500 for the last three years.
John has represented clients in the healthcare sector exclusively since 2014 and his practice is primarily focused in the North West, West Midlands and South West of England. He represents clients across a broad range of contentious and non-contentious employment issues and regularly manages a caseload of complex Tribunal litigation including cases relating to wrongful and unfair dismissals, discrimination, whistleblowing and wages claims. John is regularly instructed on multi-week discrimination and whistleblowing claims involving numerous witnesses and sensitive issues with the potential to impact an organisation’s reputation.
John also regularly undertakes advisory work including managing doctors under MHPS and complex grievance disputes.
Expertise
John has specific expertise and a passion for working with the healthcare sector. Having undertaken his training contract for the in-house legal department of NHS Wales, John is able to provide sector specific employment law advice with a strong contextual understanding of how that advice engages with the modern day NHS and sits alongside other legal practice areas such as clinical negligence, procurement and clinical advisory.
Notable Projects
- Advising and representing an NHS Trust in respect of a race discrimination, victimisation and constructive dismissal claim brought by an Associate Specialist doctor and successfully achieving a withdrawal of all claims following a Preliminary Hearing where the Claimant’s application to amend his claims was rejected;
- Advising an NHS Trust on whether the condition of “Electromagnetic Sensitivity” would meet the definition of disability in s.6 Equality Act 2010 and successfully challenging that this condition amounted to a disability during the material time of the claim.
- Advising an Integrated Care System (ICS) on the creation of a Reservist workforce to be deployed across the ICS during periods of high demand; and drafting the agreements and fixed-term contracts to support the project.
- Successfully defending injunctive proceedings brought by a Consultant Oncologist who was seeking to lift his exclusion from the Trust. The application was made during an ongoing MHPS process which was investigating concerns that he had inappropriately billed NHS patients for their treatment and successfully obtaining an award for a significant portion of the Trust’s legal fees.
- Securing a 90% reduction based on Polkey and the Claimant’s contributory fault during a remedy process for an unfair dismissal case and successfully negotiating a costs settlement on behalf of the Trust for a value in excess of the damages awarded by the Tribunal.
- Successfully defending a complex whistleblowing detriment, automatic and ordinary unfair dismissal claim from a litigant in person, which resulted in dismissal of all claims against the Trust and a successful costs application for a portion of the Trust’s legal costs of defending the claims.
CSR activity
John has been recognised in the 2024 Pro Bono Recognition list for his volunteer work with the Central England Law Centre providing advice on employment law issues to members of the public who would otherwise be without legal assistance.
Admitted as a Solicitor
- September 2017
Memberships
- Employment Lawyers Association
Qualifications
- BA (Hons) Law – University of Sheffield 2011
- PGDip Bar Professional Training Course – Northumbria University 2012
- PGDip Legal Practice Course – University of South Wales 2017
