Alan Jones

Alan is one of the founders of Averta, together with David Sykes. Prior to joining with David Sykes to form Averta Employment Lawyers, he was an equity partner at DLA Piper between 1983 and 2004. At DLA he headed the Birmingham office employment law team and had other senior management roles within the firm.

Alan is widely recognised as an employment law expert, being listed in both Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners as a leading lawyer.  He is also one of the few UK lawyers in the ‘The Legal 500 Hall of Fame’ which includes individuals who have received constant praise from their clients for continued excellence.

At DLA Piper he had responsibility for clients operating a wide range of business, including the financial services sector, retail, banking, and recruitment. Work types included enforcement and/or drafting restrictive covenants, contractual disputes, dismissals, and discrimination and over the years, he conducted over 200 hearings at employment tribunals throughout the country.

With a strong grounding in the corporate and commercial aspects of employment law, Alan now uses his expertise for the benefit of individual clients, such as directors, senior executives, managers, and professionals from businesses of all shapes and sizes. In the last eighteen years he has acted for numerous clients dealing with a whole range of issues such as discrimination, whistleblowing, share issues, bonus claims and severance payments. He has acted for PLC main board directors, including some from banks and large financial institutions and for several ‘partners’ leaving private equity funds (which gives rise to interesting ‘carried interest’ issues). He has also acted for lawyers leaving law firms around the country, and for senior executives leaving public sector and NHS organisations.

Clients has said that they consider him to be approachable and, importantly, other lawyers in commercial law firms consider him to be a capable, practical, and commercial employment lawyer.

Alan is particularly sensitive to the reputational aspect of employment issues in that an individual’s reputation (both internally and in media terms) can be of significant value and he regularly works with public relations specialists to manage reputational issues. This can be particularly relevant in public sector terminations but is also an issue for many senior executives in large companies.

Both Chambers and Legal 500 compliment his skills in their annual publications and include him in their directory of ‘legal experts’. Alan is in the Legal 500 ‘Hall of Fame’ which highlights individuals who have received constant praise by their clients for continued excellence. The 2022 edition of Legal 500 comments that: “Alan Jones advises executive-level employees on a full suite of matters including discrimination, wrongful termination and breach of contract claims. He is particularly skilled at negotiating termination packages”.

Chambers 2010 noted that “Alan has gained invaluable insight which he now uses to help senior individual and typical cases include boardroom issues, executive severance, restrictive covenants, share and share option disputes and terminations, discrimination and diversity issues generally.” Chambers reiterates that comments saying: “He is particularly skilled at negotiating termination packages” and “”He has proved to be a very knowledgeable expert in his field and has given good, straightforward advice and guidance”.

In 2023 Alan has been included in the ‘Best Lawyers 2023’ – a peer reviewed online directory of lawyers worldwide.

He is also a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and Birmingham Law Society Employment Law Committee which regularly comments on matters of public interest in the field of employment law.