John Bracken

John has a broad practice with strengths in domestic litigation, investigations and global transactional work. In particular:

• John is a strategic and effective litigator and has worked on various complex, high-value litigation matters, particularly within the financial services sector;
• John coordinates, advises on and undertakes domestic and multi-jurisdictional investigations, solely on workplace matters and in collaboration with the wider ICE PG where there are compliance or regulatory issues at stake; and
• John has also developed a strong transactional and advisory practice which includes advice on domestic and multi-jurisdictional projects, transactions and employee processes.

John also advises clients on the employment related aspects of CSRD.

• Advising GSK on the people impact and processes of the creation of a joint venture between GSK and Pfizer's consumer healthcare businesses, worth approximately GBP 10 billion. This included coordinating cross-border information and consultation advice arising from the initial merger, managing post-acquisition employee-related processes and leading various global outsourcing projects to ensure the joint venture was future ready ahead of separation of the consumer healthcare business from the wider pharmaceutical and vaccine business.
  
  
• Leading on the defence to a whistleblowing detriment and unfair dismissal claim brought by the former President & CEO of a Sovereign Wealth Fund, working closely with the client and related government ministries to successfully defend the claims on the grounds of state immunity.
  
  
• Assisting with a year-long cross-border investigation into allegations of widespread sexual harassment, bribery and misconduct within a large FMCG client on tea plantations in East Africa, including advising on findings of guilt, potential liabilities and remedial actions.
  
  
• Working with an international professional services firm to develop a best-practice workplace investigation protocol, including development of process maps, scoping documents, training materials, internal Legal / HR guidance and template documentation.
  
  
• Advising on the critical insourcing of domestic security services by a pharmaceutical company, including leading contentious discussions about employee perimeter and applicability of TUPE, drafting and negotiating liability split and relevant contractual documentation and managing associated employee exits.
  
  
• Representing a multinational bank and named c-suite respondents in defending a complex whistleblowing detriment, victimization, sex, age, race and disability discrimination claim with claimed losses of GBP 30 million.
  
  
• Seconded to a blue-chip aviation client for 10 months, working within the dedicated Employment team. Provided in-house support to the various People teams, including acting as the primary legal contact on a major outsourcing exercise, advising managers and HR on a parallel TUPE and redundancy process and consequent industrial relations issues arising from offshoring of customer services function.

• Law Society of England & Wales - Member

• Member of BakerOpportunity affinity group