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Portrait ofTracey Marsden

Tracey Marsden

Partner

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
1-3 Charter Square
Sheffield
S1 4HS
United Kingdom
Languages English

Tracey Marsden is a Partner in and leads the CMS Sheffield Employment Team.  She has over 26 years' experience of both contentious and non-contentious issues in the public and private sector.   Tracey is an experienced Tribunal advocate and works with clients in a wide variety of sectors.

Tracey advises on trade union and industrial relations issues, major business transfers, redundancy and restructuring programmes and TUPE related issues, including in the context of public procurement in the public and private sectors.  She has also developed expertise in managing employment issues arising out of Private Equity transactions, usually involving senior executives with equity as well as advising buyers and sellers of businesses in insolvency.  

She often assists clients through business change as part of which she has extensive TUPE and restructuring experience and has dealt with a vast array of redundancy programmes, including in unionised environments.  She has also handled large scale changes to terms and conditions of employment and incentive/bonus programmes. Tracey is frequently called on to support sensitive issues at boardroom level, in particular senior management dismissals/appointments, reorganisations and team moves. 

Tracey has been involved in the management of international employment issues, largescale reorganisations and significant and high-profile business transfers, real estate and M&A transactions. Recent work includes advising on the speedy acquisition by Galliford Try of the water division of NMCN plc (in administration) involving the transfer of 900 employees, the acquisition by Retail Ecommerce Ventures LLC of high-end brand Ralph & Russo and the transfer of the business of Bulb Energy to Octopus Energy via the first of its kind Energy Transfer Scheme.    

Tracey’s practice also includes advising on discrimination in the provision of goods and services and access to premises.

Tracey also heads the One North Charity Committee.  She is co-lead of the Sheffield office CMS Women's Network and sits on the Global CMS Women committee.

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Relevant experience

  • UK Coal on the employment team in connection with the employment issues arising from a second and innovative corporate restructuring following a catastrophic fire at one of UK Coal's deep mines in February 2013. The restructuring was of national importance, preserving over 2000 regional jobs and protecting the pensions of over 7000 former employees. Advice covered immediate and interim workforce solutions, including short-time working, lay-off and secondments to other collieries and subsequently collective redundancies, and TUPE issues associated with the corporate restructuring. Also advised on claims that arose during the administration of the former group, including group litigation for non-payment of redundancy pay and has since advised on the employment issues arising in relation to the closure of the last deep mines in the UK.
  • Lowcost travel group Limited facilitating and advising on the employment advice across 4 jurisdictions (UK, Poland, Spain and Switzerland) in relation to the administration of the Lowcost travel group. 
  • Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council on the employment support required by the Council in relation to its Building Schools for the Future programme, including advice on the application of TUPE, drafting TUPE provisions for contracts between the Schools and service providers and considering the legal status of maintained schools for the purposes of a TUPE transfer
  • Places for People on a number of contracts for the provision of Leisure Management services to local authorities and providing associated TUPE advice and HR support
  • Real Estate Support on numerous property transfers (including hotel chains, shopping centres and office buildings) involving TUPE issues and the employment provisions of Property and Hotel Management Agreements 
  • Data Subject Access Requests of employees – guiding employers through the duties under the Data Protection Act 1998; advising on exemptions and obligations in the context of litigation. 
  • Employment Tribunal dealing with complex claims including whistleblowing, discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation.
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Memberships & Roles

  • Tracey is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the European Employment Lawyers Association.
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Education

  • 1993 – BA (Hons) Law (2:1), Sheffield Hallam University
  • 1994 – Legal Practice Course (Distinction), College of Law, York
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Expertise

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11/01/2024
Back to the Future? Redundancy dismissal was unfair due to lack of consultation...
A recent decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal has re-emphasised the importance of consulting with employees on relevant aspects of a redundancy process at both a formative stage of proposals and...
01/12/2023
Collective redundancies and possible criminal liability: Supreme Court...
Recent news reports have highlighted that the number of corporate insolvencies has continued to rise during 2022 and 2023, with the retail sector being particularly affected. Many companies are struggling...
25/07/2023
Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill receives Royal Assent
The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill received Royal Assent on 20 July. The Bill was introduced to Parliament in January and its passage was swift despite strong opposition from trade unions, who...
17/07/2023
Striking Times: As You Were…
As reported in our previous Law-Now series: Striking Times ((1) Preparing for industrial action, (2) Managing industrial action, and (3) The current industrial relations landscape in the UK), in the midst...
05/04/2023
Striking Times: the shifting sands of industrial relations
Over the last twelve months we’ve seen unprecedented strike action in what has been dubbed the UK’s second ‘winter of discontent’. The landscape of industrial relations in the UK is changing prompted...
30/03/2023
Striking Times: the shifting sands of industrial relations in the UK
So far, 2023 has seen a continuation of last year’s widespread strike action in what has been dubbed the UK’s second winter of discontent. The disruptive effect of widespread and coordinated strike...
15/03/2023
Mental health and wellbeing
Mental health and wellbeing is seen as a critical aspect of the Social pillar of ESG, which focuses on how employers behave towards their staff. Sup­port­ing employees’ mental health and wellbeing is not only the right thing to do as a socially responsible employer, but there are also business benefits to be gained.
03/02/2023
Government proposes legislation to mandate minimum service levels during...
The industrial landscape has become increasingly complex. The second half of 2022 saw strikes across many sectors including rail, mail, and nursing. Now, teachers are the latest group to strike. In response...
23/09/2022
ESG: Pay Gap Reporting – a tangible way to show progress under the S 
In the second of our ESG series looking at employment law and ESG, we explore the role of pay gap reporting as a way of demonstrating a company’s social credentials. One of the central challenges for...
13/07/2022
Striking Times (2): managing industrial action
As we discussed in our previous Law-Now Striking times: preparing for industrial action a wide variety of employers are facing the potential for industrial action this Summer. Since our last report, more...
21/06/2022
Striking times: preparing for industrial action
The current landscape The UK is experiencing the biggest rail strike in three decades called by the RMT (The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers), bringing major upheaval to the wider...
21/04/2022
CMS advises on investment in technology solutions provider WSD
International law firm CMS has advised the founder and shareholders of WSD on a majority stake investment by Bowmark Capital (Bowmark), the mid-market private equity firm. WSD is a leading provider of...