Herbert Smith is being sued by one of its own associates who alleges that she was illegally employed by its Paris office.
French employees have extremely generous redundancy rights, and as a result firms employ nearly all their associates on a freelance basis. The associate claims that as she was required to work ten hours a day for Herbert Smith she should be regarded as an employee. And if she manages to persuade a judge to agree with her then it will change the entire French legal market.
The associate is being represented by Avi Bitton, RollOnFriday's favourite work-shy Frenchman, who The Lawyer reports has already served a summons on the firm. Avi first came to prominence as an associate at Clifford Chance's Paris office, when the firm tried to boot him out following a less than stellar appraisal. He promptly got himself appointed as a shop steward for the union of basketweavers or something equally unlikely with the result that, under French employment law, CC couldn't touch him. Not that it didn't try - the firm took him to court, and lost.
Since then Bitton has launched his own outfit, and earlier this year he wrote to the Managing Partners of all the major French firms warning them that he was going to come after them in support of associates' rights. The Herbert Smith action seems to be his test case.
A spokesman for Herbert Smith said that the firm couldn't comment on active litigation.
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French employees have extremely generous redundancy rights, and as a result firms employ nearly all their associates on a freelance basis. The associate claims that as she was required to work ten hours a day for Herbert Smith she should be regarded as an employee. And if she manages to persuade a judge to agree with her then it will change the entire French legal market.
The associate is being represented by Avi Bitton, RollOnFriday's favourite work-shy Frenchman, who The Lawyer reports has already served a summons on the firm. Avi first came to prominence as an associate at Clifford Chance's Paris office, when the firm tried to boot him out following a less than stellar appraisal. He promptly got himself appointed as a shop steward for the union of basketweavers or something equally unlikely with the result that, under French employment law, CC couldn't touch him. Not that it didn't try - the firm took him to court, and lost.
Since then Bitton has launched his own outfit, and earlier this year he wrote to the Managing Partners of all the major French firms warning them that he was going to come after them in support of associates' rights. The Herbert Smith action seems to be his test case.
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A work-shy frenchman yesterday |
A spokesman for Herbert Smith said that the firm couldn't comment on active litigation.