Partnership disputes can be costly and disruptive for any firm. Our employment law solicitors can help you resolve disputes quickly and ensure a positive outcome for individual partners and the partnership as a whole.

Employment law for partners is more complicated than for standard employees, so it’s vital to have legal support when disputes between partners arise. Disputes can be costly and time-consuming for any business, but partnership disputes can also result in the dissolution of the partnership.

Our lawyers can help you resolve these disputes quickly to minimise disruption for your business. The team works with all types of partnership, including general partnerships, partnerships at will, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships (LLPs).

We can advise your partnership on a range of issues, including:

  • Employment status of partners – we can help you determine if partners are entitled to employee-specific rights such as protection from unfair dismissal or statutory maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
  • Partner departures (voluntary and involuntary) - We advise on a variety of disputes relating to departures, such as the right to retire, and unfair dismissal or constructive unfair dismissal claims.
  • Enforcing restrictive covenants - A partner’s restrictions are treated differently to an employee’s so it’s important to get specific advice.
  • Discrimination against partners – Partners have similar rights to employees not to suffer unlawful discrimination.

In some situations, resolving your dispute might result in the partnership being dissolved – our experienced corporate lawyers can advise you through this transition too.

A well-drafted partnership agreement is the best way to protect your partnership from disputes. Our commercial lawyers can also help your business draft a partnership agreement that carefully accounts for potential issues that might arise.

As one of the country’s leading employment law teams, we have extensive experience with all types of partnerships, across the entire range of industry sectors. With offices in 14 major locations nationwide, we can help wherever your business is based.

Contact Us Today

Call us on 01142 781 629 or contact us today for more information about how our solicitors can help resolve your partnership dispute.

Case Study - Successful Disability Discrimination Claim for Partner of an Accountancy Firm

We advised a partner of a national accountancy firm looking to make a disability discrimination claim.

Their firm had failed to make reasonable adjustments for them in the workplace, forcing them to take sickness absence.

The case was complex because under partnership agreement laws, a partner is not an employee and not protected by typical employment laws. This meant the partnership could choose to dismiss our client because of sickness absence without our client having any employment protection rights.

However, partners are still protected against discrimination and we helped our client prove unfair treatment.

We were able to restore our client’s relationship with the partnership so they could return to work with proper disability safeguards and adjustments in place, without making a claim.


Partnership disputes are difficult because of the complex legislation that applies to partnership agreements.

I’m glad we could achieve a positive result for both parties in this case and avoid a costly discrimination claim."

Irwin Mitchell Solicitor

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We have offices in major cities throughout the UK and our lawyers can arrange to visit you or your business in person if necessary. We also have international capability, with global links to other legal specialists.