Meet the team
Frustrated and uninspired by your current advice? Stressed or overwhelmed when dealing with these matters?
It’s OK, you can talk to us in confidence. We are here to help.
We are han.
Hannah Strawbridge
CEO/Founder/Employment Solicitor
Hannah is an experienced Employment Solicitor, Tribunal advocate and is CEO and the sole founder of Han Law.
Disillusioned by the traditional business model which too often failed to deliver the best for her clients, herself and her team, Hannah set up Han Law in 2019 with the goal of improving working lives for all.
Hannah takes a fresh, modern and fun approach to employment law, where innovation and creativity go hand in hand with technical ability and a life beyond the office.
Hannah’s a passionate advocate for equal rights in the workplace. She regularly presents and writes on the topic and during the Covid-19 Pandemic, she launched a campaign for employers to be more transparent about potential redundancies, to better protect women’s rights in the workplace.
When she’s not being taxi service to her two boys, Hannah can be found playing football, cooking and generally just having fun.
Jessica Jones
Senior Consultant Employment Solicitor
Jessica is a specialist employment lawyer, providing commercial and pragmatic advice to both businesses and individuals. She trained with Eversheds and then worked at DWF from qualification in 2009 prior to commencing a career as a consultant and joining the Han Law team.
Jessica has a great deal of experience across different sectors, advising clients on all aspects of employment law. This includes dealing with the whole spectrum of Employment Tribunal claims, and assisting clients to navigate employee aspects of business change, including redundancy and TUPE consultation processes. Jessica also advises and trains clients regarding day-to-day aspects of employment law, for example disciplinary and grievance processes, as well as drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks. Jessica regularly provides advice to clients negotiating settlement agreements.
Away from work, Jessica is a busy Mum of two small children. She loves to read and socialise with family and friends when time permits!
Zarah Morwood
Senior Consultant Employment Solicitor
Zarah is a qualified solicitor with over 20 years’ experience in employment law. She has worked in the private and public sector, advising a wide range of businesses. She has headed up legal teams and liaised with various government bodies and institutions to challenge proposed employment law regulations.
Zarah specialises in advising overseas businesses with an employee presence in the UK on the applicable employment law framework.
She has extensive experience in facilitating TUPE Transfers and redundancies, conducting complex investigations, advising on IR35 Regulations, Data Protection, disciplinaries and grievances, as well as drafting and negotiating Settlement Agreements and Restrictive Covenants.
Zarah has a practical understanding of the commercial world. Her strong legal knowledge, professionalism, inherent honesty and an unrivalled attention to detail is topped by a great sense of humour, making her a valuable asset to the Han Law team and our clients.
Hannah Strawbridge
CEO/Founder/Employment Lawyer
Hannah is an experienced Employment Solicitor, Tribunal advocate and is CEO and the sole founder of Han Law.
Disillusioned by the traditional business model which too often failed to deliver the best for her clients, herself and her team, Hannah set up Han Law in 2019 with the goal of improving working lives for all.
Hannah takes a fresh, modern and fun approach to employment law, where innovation and creativity go hand in hand with technical ability and a life beyond the office.
Hannah’s a passionate advocate for equal rights in the workplace. She regularly presents and writes on the topic and during the Covid-19 Pandemic, she launched a campaign for employers to be more transparent about potential redundancies, to better protect women’s rights in the workplace.
When she’s not being taxi service to her two boys, Hannah can be found playing football, cooking and generally just having fun.
Jessica Jones
Senior Consultant Employment Lawyer
Jessica is a specialist employment lawyer, providing commercial and pragmatic advice to both businesses and individuals. She trained with Eversheds and then worked at DWF from qualification in 2009 prior to commencing a career as a consultant and joining the Han Law team.
Jessica has a great deal of experience across different sectors, advising clients on all aspects of employment law. This includes dealing with the whole spectrum of Employment Tribunal claims, and assisting clients to navigate employee aspects of business change, including redundancy and TUPE consultation processes. Jessica also advises and trains clients regarding day-to-day aspects of employment law, for example disciplinary and grievance processes, as well as drafting of contracts of employment and staff handbooks. Jessica regularly provides advice to clients negotiating settlement agreements.
Away from work, Jessica is a busy Mum of two small children. She loves to read and socialise with family and friends when time permits!
Zarah Morwood
Senior Consultant Employment Lawyer
Zarah is a qualified solicitor with over 20 years’ experience in employment law. She has worked in the private and public sector, advising a wide range of businesses. She has headed up legal teams and liaised with various government bodies and institutions to challenge proposed employment law regulations.
Zarah specialises in advising overseas businesses with an employee presence in the UK on the applicable employment law framework.
She has extensive experience in facilitating TUPE Transfers and redundancies, conducting complex investigations, advising on IR35 Regulations, Data Protection, disciplinaries and grievances, as well as drafting and negotiating Settlement Agreements and Restrictive Covenants.
Zarah has a practical understanding of the commercial world. Her strong legal knowledge, professionalism, inherent honesty and an unrivalled attention to detail is topped by a great sense of humour, making her a valuable asset to the Han Law team and our clients.
Ruth Deakin
Senior Consultant Employment Expert
Ruth has specialised in employment law since qualifying in 2010. She has worked for international law firms, HR consultancies and has represented many businesses as an employment tribunal advocate. Ruth understands the many issues faced by businesses first hand. She has also had the benefit of managing people and so knows the issues this can raise.
Ruth is committed to making a positive impact whether she’s providing practical and effective HR/employment law advice, supplying legally up-to-date and totally bespoke HR documentation or delivering training.
Ruth’s track record is backed by strong legal knowledge. She also has excellent client service skills and an ability to apply the law directly to your situation.
Lisa Gillespie
Senior HR Consultant/Mediator
Lisa grew up in Belfast with a desire to broaden her horizons but no idea how, as her Dad said an education was wasted on a girl.
Ever the rebel, she excelled at school and escaped on a ferry, ending up in Manchester with no money studying law and then, after clambering up the corporate ladder, gaining a post-graduate qualification in Human Resource Management. By that time she was in her thirties, on the leadership team of the largest consultancy business in the UK and Ireland, and the proud mother of two motorcycles, a campervan and a dog. So simply no time for marriage or children.
Before rising to a directorship in a global company and becoming bored with meetings and spreadsheets, Lisa cut her teeth advising and representing employers, and that is where her heart lies, so she does a lot of that these days. Lisa is also a regular columnist in industry magazines, writing on business, politics and economic policy. She enjoys appearing at speaking events and has dabbled in radio and television. With over 25 years industry experience and as a veteran of many complex employment cases, Lisa qualified in recent years as a mediator, because sometimes it is good to find the middle-ground, right?
Lisa also provides leadership coaching, trains managers and HR professionals in all aspects of HR and Employment Law. Lisa has a stellar CV as an effective trouble-shooter, often hired to get into the heart of a business, rally the stakeholders and get the train back on the rails. When she isn’t being wonderful, Lisa is usually travelling, DJing or getting into intense, but healthy, political debates with anyone who will listen. And of course her Dad ate his words years ago!
Gaynor Beckett
Specialist Consultant Employment Lawyer
Gaynor is a specialist employment lawyer, providing commercial and pragmatic advice to both businesses. She qualified in 2002 and has gained a vast amount of sector experience over the years, advising clients on all aspects of employment law. She describes herself as a true employment law generalist, a safe pair of hands, a solicitor who listens to the desired client outcome, then gets the job done. Her fun, yet candid and transparent personality is frequently welcomed by clients. Gaynor prides herself on being available for client’s when they need her, she is as a fantastic compliment to any busy HR team who just need to talk things through, or an invaluable resource for an SME business without a HR function. She is also a competent employment law litigator and is able to take the stress away from any employer who finds themselves presented with an Employment Tribunal claim.
Having worked in-house over the years Gaynor also has experience of assisting businesses who recognise a trade union, and can often assist towards untangling issues that all too often muddy the waters in what should be straight forward employee relation matters. She also has a passion for training business on talent retention specifically towards older female professionals who all too often leave successful careers unnecessarily for a variety of reasons, taking with them their vast amount of business experience, a situation she found herself in until joining Hanlaw as a senior employment law consultant.
Outside of work Gaynor is super sporty, she is part of the GBR Age Group Triathlon Team, and this year, 2023 is going to represent Great Britain in Madrid, and Pontevedra
Laura Reilly
Employment Law Consultant
Laura is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, Chartered member of The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Associate Chartered Institute of Legal Executives member with a certificate in employment practice and works as legal counsel.
She is a highly experienced HR professional specialising in employment law, talent acquisition and development, organisational development, employment relations and litigation. She has over 17 years of private and non-profit sector experience, a practical understanding of operational management as a national operations manager, combined with operational and strategic HR management experience, up to Board level. She was previously a director of a medium-sized Accountancy Practice specialising in HR consultancy and employment law for clients and is considered an integral part of senior leadership teams driving cultural change.
Laura is an active contributor to HR communities and is a qualified mediator, focusing on conflict management and resolution. She undertakes high-profile investigations in the public sector, and has an enhanced DBS with security clearance to work on confidential cases.
Georgie Miller
Consultant Associate
Georgie graduated from Durham University in 2014 with a politics degree. She was lucky enough to have secured her training contract during her final year so spent time putting her Spanish A level to good use travelling around South America before embarking on her legal career.
Georgie trained and qualified within Big Law. She was exposed to a broad spectrum of work including: corporate support; TUPE transactional support; redundancies; performance disciplinaries; harassment advice; equal pay; employment contracts; settlement agreements; whistleblowing litigation; furlough and general HR advice. Despite enjoying transactional support she wished to move away from a deal-led environment and made the decision to move to GQ Littler in 2021.
During this period, Georgie was diagnosed with ADHD after suffering from bouts of depression and anxiety which did not make sense to her. Basic aspects of working life seemed incredibly difficult in comparison to her peers. She decided to take a sabbatical, became a ski instructor and undertook deep work into researching and managing her symptoms.
Han Law is the perfect environment for her to continue to develop as an employment lawyer whilst also coupling her passion for ADHD inclusivity with her practice. She is a qualified coach and can offer individuals and businesses advice and coaching to capitalise on the brilliant talents of ADHD brains.