David Eastwood, Head of Team, Legal Services

Tell us more about your background?

Like many in my position, the journey began with becoming a fully qualified solicitor. This included the usual steps, such as a law degree and a legal practices course. More unusually I conducted my training whilst working in an “in-house” position. Since then, I’ve spent the majority of my career in food retail, working for national supermarket chains initially as in-house employment lawyer and later as Head of Employment and Employee Relations and so with a significant HR aspect to my role. My first in-house job covered a mixed bag of employment, trading standards, consumer protection and civil litigation. Over time and as the employment work grew, I recruited a team to deal with the other areas. I also undertook a 12-month role for an international facility management provider before joining WorkNest in 2014. Having started out as a Senior Employment Law Adviser, I then moved on to the Head of Team role, and now manage a team of nine legal advisers. In all, I now have around 30 years of experience of dealing with employment law issues, so I think I’ve seen, if not it all, at least most things!

What does your role at WorkNest entail?

Despite being Head of Team, much of my role consists of answering emails and calls, so I’m never far removed from the realities of client issues. Other than that, my main responsibilities are looking after my team of consultants and ensuring they are supported, as well as managing client relationships. I would say that I’ve now dealt with around 60 different clients during my time at WorkNest, including organisations in the manufacturing, care, transport and professional services industries. If I’ve developed a style over the years, I would say it’s direct and to-the-point. Employment law can be a minefield, so I truly believe this is the best way to go.

Which aspect of the role do you enjoy the most, and which do you find most challenging?

Even after 30 years in the field and six years at WorkNest, I still take great pleasure in providing solutions and options to enable clients to get the best outcome for the organisation. That really is the essence of employment law, and you have to thrive off that in order to succeed. However, there are of course challenges to overcome, and I would say that striking a fine balance is the one that stands out. More specifically, balancing the need to be respectful of clients with the requirement to often tell them that they are wrong. This can be tricky to achieve.