Gemma Woodhouse
- Employment Lawyer
- Penningtons Manches Cooper
- Marlow
“I’m kept very busy with two (not quite teenage) children and two miniature dachshunds. When I’m not ferrying the children to various sporting/theatre/social events or walking/managing the dogs, I enjoy travelling (sometimes with the children, rarely with the dogs!), eating out, theatre, a good read, and sessions on my spin bike or playing tennis.”
I’ve been at Penningtons Manches Cooper for a number of years and have seen the firm grow exponentially. I joined as a trainee and am now a Partner. I’m based in the firm’s Reading office although my clients are both national and international. My work includes regularly advising on day to day employment matters and HR issues, including employee relations issues, grievances, disciplinary matters and Employment Tribunal claims. I advise on whistleblowing and discrimination complaints and have significant experience on the application of TUPE. My clients range from smaller starts up of less than 10 employees to large international corporations with employees running into the thousands.
In addition to employment, I also head up the firm’s independent school’s team. We advise independent schools on parent complaints, subject access requests and data issues, SEND needs and disability discrimination claims including SENDist Tribunal matters and pupil sanctions. As part of this I have significant experience in the regulatory requirements that would apply in a schools context. I also have regulatory experience in relation to financial services and am increasingly advising on AI, and in particular shadow AI in an employee context.
I regularly write in HR and education publications and will provide training to employers on employment updates, and management of staff. I’m listed in the Legal 500 as a leading partner and ranked in Chambers UK.
I pride myself of building close and long-lasting relationships with my clients to ensure that I can understand the outcome they are looking for and provide advice in a responsive, practical and commercial way.
