Melissa Kponou

Melissa specialises in employment law.  She was called to the Bar in 2001 and admitted as a solicitor in 2009.

Melissa starting her practice in this field in 2004 and alongside that has developed into providing HR support, is qualified as a mediator, a qualified GDPR practitioner as well as having attained qualifications in Investment Compliance and Financial Crime Prevention.

Melissa acts on behalf of Claimants and Respondents across all business sector but principally acts for Claimants.  Melissa deals with both contentious and non-contentious matters

Noteworthy cases

• Successful £50k settlement in a pregnancy discrimination case.
• Successful £50k settlement in a disability discrimination case
• Successful disability discrimination claim leading to an award of £200k+
• Represented multi-claimant holiday pay cases that culminated with the EAT Bear Scotland v Fulton case regarding the three-month gap.
• Successful defence of family run company against complex claims of unlawful deduction of wages, and whistleblowing.
• Successfully assisted an employer manage a flexible working request in circumstances when the employee alleged sex discrimination if she didn’t secure her request;
• Achieved successful settlement sum of £40,000+ in relation to client’s claim of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination due to his being forced to accept medical retirement;
• Successfully settled negligent misstatement claim leading to promotion of client from administrative worker to a management role coupled with financial settlement of £30,000+;
• Successfully settled breach of contract claim in the sum of £25,000+ due to transferee employer not knowing of those parts of the occupational pension scheme that TUPE transferred;
• Successful Employment Tribunal whistle-blowing claim leading to an award of compensation in excess of £20,000;
• Succeeded in one of the first sexual orientation claims against a national fashion retailer; cited in many articles including Stonewall;
• Successfully argued for an out of time sex discrimination claim against a multi-national telecommunications company to be allowed in, led to successful settlement of £20,000+.
• Re-instatement of a prison officer, 2 years’ post dismissal, achieved settlement of £100,000+;
• Represented an employer in a complex unfair dismissal claim, leading to a successful of that claim and the successful conclusion of the commercial matters too.

Outside of work, Melissa enjoys the regular activities, keep fit; that includes boxing, and socialising, that includes being in a drumming band.  Melissa is also recently started learning Japanese.