Sarah Appleton

Sarah provides advice to businesses of all sizes throughout the UK – from local businesses with 30 employees to organisations who employ over  80,000 employees – on  all areas of employment law, whether contentious or non-contentious. She has an excellent reputation for providing commercial and pragmatic advice to her clients, and prides herself in her quick response times.

Whilst she advises on all aspects of employment law, and has a wealth of experience in dealing with complex issues, her particular area of expertise lies in advising on redundancy processes (collective and individual), restructuring exercises, and TUPE issues in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Sarah is frequently called on to advise her clients initially on the legal considerations in those matters and then takes a “hands-on” approach to leading her clients through the necessary legal processes that follow. She also regularly acts for employers facing claims in the Employment Tribunal (including class actions) and has a reputation for achieving excellent results for clients and being a formidable opponent.

In her role as a Governor at City College Norwich, Sarah actively contributes to the wellbeing of both staff and students, applying her professional expertise in HR and employment law to support best practice within the college. Sarah also plays a part in helping to shape the college’s future direction, ensuring it continues to thrive and serve the needs of the community.

• Advises employer clients in dealing with all day-to-day HR issues such as senior exits, performance management, disciplinary matters, and long term sickness issues.
• Sarah’s particular specialism lies in relation to redundancies, restructuring, and business change processes, including TUPE transfers.  Sarah advises clients on the legal risks of and application to those processes, and assists with management of those projects, which often impact hundreds of employees at a time.
• Sarah heads up the team’s training offering, regularly designing and delivering training in-house to her clients in relation to any matter of employment law, including in particular equality, diversity & inclusion in the workplace.
• Manages and runs the defence of complex employment litigation for Respondent (employer) clients, including defence of high-value complex multi-party class action claims, and complex equal pay claims.

Sarah also has an impressive reputation with regards to her provision of in-house training to clients, and is regularly called to her clients’ premises to deliver training both at Board level and on the ground more generally. Sarah designs and delivers bespoke training on any area of employment law that her clients request, including behaviours, equality and diversity in the workplace, and management generally.

• Trained at national firm, Birketts, qualifying as a Solicitor in 2011
• Joined Leathes Prior’s Employment Team in August 2013
• Joined the Partnership at Leathes Prior in May 2017
• Became Leathes Prior’s Training Principal, responsible for the recruitment and training of Trainee Solicitors in 2021
• Became Head of the Employment Team at Leathes Prior in April 2026