Julia M. Wilson

Julia focuses on supporting employers with multi-jurisdictional and high-value matters involving strategic, operational, financial or reputational risk. In particular, she assists with designing workforce models, advising on regulatory frameworks governing non-traditional workforce engagement and on the implementation of organisational change and restructuring. Julia advises multinational corporations around the use of responsible AI, including the legal frameworks, AI ethics and governance, bias, and generative AI. Julia also advises on workplace data protection and compliance, complex employment litigation, global projects and transactions.

Workforce redesign

• Working with a health and life sciences / technology company on a location-agnostic recruitment survey, highlighting the risk levels in regard to recruitment / employment relationships, employee management, and the termination / litigation landscape across 35 jurisdictions.

• Advising a global biopharmaceutical startup in hyper-growth mode in regard to alternative workforce models, such as contractor, agency, and staff leasing, to analyze the associated risks and the key features of each model, to help HR and Talent teams make appropriate judgment calls across jurisdictions.

• Advising a global technology company on its proposal to engage atypical workers and independent contractors engagement in 22 new jurisdictions, mapping the employment, data protection, corporate and personal tax, social security, immigration, and governance obligations arising from the proposed programme.

Data Protection and compliance

• Supporting a leading financial services institution, a luxury brand retailer, and a global defence company with their GDPR readiness programmes, from inception and design of the programmes to the audit of current practices and implementation of change required for GDPR readiness.

• Advising a multinational bank on its response to an individual's data subject access request, and subsequently their complaint about the handling of their personal data, liaising with the Information Commissioner's Office.

• Leading a project advising a multinational electronics company on the implementation of a Workday HR Database for over 230,000 employees worldwide. Includes coordinating advice on implementation steps required for compliance in key European jurisdictions.

• Advising a multinational medical devices company on the development of a data global protection compliance framework, including data mapping, drafting compliance documentation and advising on implementation, and coordinating advice on the same across 15 countries.

High-value employment claims

• Representing a leading multinational bank in defence and settlement of an age discrimination, equal pay, whistleblowing and unfair dismissal claim from an employee who was claiming compensation of GBP 5 million.

• Representing a leading multinational bank in defence and settlement of a sex discrimination, equal pay, whistleblowing and unfair dismissal claim in which the employee was claiming compensation of GBP 20 million.

• Representing a leading pharmaceutical company in the defence and settlement of a disability and age discrimination claim, in which the employee was claiming career losses.

Global projects

• Advising a number of leading global technology and life sciences companies on their global response to the pandemic across 52 countries overall, from the implications of lockdowns, school closures and home working, accessing the various government support schemes, managing health and safety obligations, covid testing and vaccination requirements, to managing return to work, and the implementation of new hybrid working frameworks.

• Working with senior legal counsel, HR and ER of a multinational technology firm to develop and implement new global workplace conduct policies to apply to its more than 370,000 employees.

• Leading two global projects for a marine classification body related to contract review and working time advice, working with local counsel in more than 30 jurisdictions.

• Advising a health and life sciences company on its global response to the Ukraine invasion including the employment, tax and immigration considerations in relation to employees who had migrated to 18 different countries.

Transactions

• Advising a multinational technology company on its digital transformation across more than 20 countries, involving a major outsourcing, and restructuring of its business; providing full end to end support on the transaction negotiation documentation, advising and preparing documentation to implement the restructuring and outsourcing, and the required information and consultation processes required.

• Advising a private equity company on its acquisition of a life sciences business, involving a complex pre-sale carve out across 33 jurisdictions, leading the HR aspects of the transaction documentation negotiation, and advising on transfer processes across all jurisdictions, information and consultation obligations, and readiness for day 1.

• Advising a global consumer goods brand on its digital transformation, and global restructuring across 24 countries, advising on the individual and collective employee consultation, preparing documentation to implement the changes, and related grievances and litigation.

• Employment Lawyer's Association
• International Association of Privacy Practitioners