Saul Margo

Call date: 2005

Email: Saul Margo

Areas of Law:	Employment & Discrimination, Financial Services, Pensions, Professional Negligence, Public Law

Practice summary

Saul has a pensions, employment and commercial law practice.

Saul graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge with a first class degree in philosophy (second highest in the year). He subsequently completed an MSc in philosophy and social policy at the LSE where he was awarded a distinction.

In March 2010, Saul was appointed to the Attorney General's C panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown.

Pensions
Saul’s advises on all aspects of pensions law. His most recent advisory work includes:

advising TPR on the likely meaning of various terms used in the Pensions Act 2008
advising an employer as to whether a section 75 debt has been triggered and the effect of PNPF Trust Co Ltd v Taylor in that context;
advising the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on his powers in relation to a reference of a question to the Secretary of State under regulation 7(5) of the Local Government Pension Scheme (Administration) Regulations 2008;
advising in relation to the definition of pensionable pay in the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme;
advising a London Council in respect of its liability to pay former employees a deferred pension from the Local Government Pension Scheme;
advising in relation to the closure by the Trinity Mirror Group of its final salary pension scheme.

Saul has conducted hearings in front of the Determinations Panel of the Pensions Regulator on behalf of companies and has appeared in the High Court in an appeal from a Determination of the Pensions Ombudsman. He is being led by Nicholas Stallworthy QC in an equalisation claim (litigation pending).

He is a member of the Association of Pensions Lawyers.

Employment
Saul's employment practice includes regular appearances in the Employment Tribunal in contested final hearings, case management discussions and pre-hearing reviews. He has particular experience of cases involving all aspects of discrimination, unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal, TUPE and contractual disputes.

Saul appears regularly in the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He was led recently by Keith Bryant in the Court of Appeal in the case of Spaceright Europe Limited v Baillavoine & Others [2011] EWCA Civ 1565, a case concerning the correct application of regulation 7 of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. Saul successfully acted for Mr Baillavoine in the EAT and the Court of Appeal upheld the EAT’s Judgment.

Saul was instructed as junior to Andrew Short QC in an 8 week equal pay case which settled in November 2010.

He is a member of ELA, ELBA and the DLA and is standing counsel to the British Association of Journalists.

Commercial
Saul has experience of a wide range of commercial and contractual disputes ranging from sports contracts to hire purchase and consumer credit agreements. Saul was instructed as junior counsel in a claim against DEFRA worth over £5m which was brought in the Technology and Construction Court. The case ran over an 18-month period during 2007, 2008 and 2009 before the case settled just prior to trial.

During that period, the case generated four important interlocutory judgments from the trial judge, Ramsey J, each of which now features in discussions on the relevant areas of law by practitioners and commentators: the validity of a purported assignment of an insolvent company's causes of action; see [2007] EWHC 2870 (TCC) & [2008] EWHC 238 (TCC); important and ground-breaking issues of implied waiver of legal professional privilege; see [2008] EWHC 3079 (TCC); the extent to which what happens at a mediation is covered by confidentiality, the without prejudice cloak or is otherwise privileged, whether the parties can agree between themselves to waive any confidentiality or privilege in the mediation and whether (and if so in what circumstances) the mediator can be compelled by one of the parties to give evidence about events at the mediation; see [2009] EWHC 1102 (TCC).

Saul was instructed for all these hearings and due to the unavailability of his leader conducted the final of these hearings himself. The Defendant was represented by Queen's Counsel. He has rights of audience in the Dubai International Financial Court (DIFC) is a member of COMBAR and the COMBAR-Africa committee.

A selection of recent cases

Spaceright Europe Limited v Baillavoine & Others (EAT)
Spaceright Europe Limited v Baillavoine & Others [2011] EWCA Civ 1565
Saul appears regularly in the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He was led recently by Keith Bryant in the Court of Appeal in the case of Spaceright Europe Limited v Baillavoine & Others [2011] EWCA Civ 1565, a case concerning the correct application of regulation 7 of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. Saul successfully acted for Mr Baillavoine in the EAT and the Court of Appeal upheld the EAT’s Judgment.

Burns v Santander [2011] IRLR 639
Successfully represented the Respondent in a case concerning whether the Claimant, who alleged he was wrongly remanded in custody, was entitled to be paid his wages while in custody.

British Association of Journalists v MGN
Successfully argued at the CAC that MGN had failed to carry out its obligations under a collective bargaining agreement. The case concerned the correct interpretation of the phrase “binging in honour”.

Wheeler v Southern Water Services Ltd [2010] EWHC 1876 (Ch)
An appeal from a Determination of the Pensions Ombudsman relating to the provision of ill-health retirement benefits

Re DP Laboratory Retirement Benefits Scheme
TPR case concerning the appointment of an independent trustee.

Ruttle Plant Hire Ltd v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2009] 1 All ER 448
Ruttle Plant Hire Ltd v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2008] 2 All ER (Comm) 246
Farm Assist Limited (in Liquidation) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2009] BLR 399
Farm Assist Limited (in Liquidation) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2009] BLR 80
Four important interlocutory judgments from the trial judge, Ramsey J, each of which now features in discussions on the relevant areas of law by practitioners and commentators: the validity of a purported assignment of an insolvent company's causes of action; important and ground-breaking issues of implied waiver of legal professional privilege; the extent to which what happens at a mediation is covered by confidentiality, the without prejudice cloak or is otherwise privileged, whether the parties can agree between themselves to waive any confidentiality or privilege in the mediation and whether (and if so in what circumstances) the mediator can be compelled by one of the parties to give evidence about events at the mediation.

St Ives Plymouth Limited v Haggerty (EAT)
Successfully represented the Claimant – the EAT upheld the Tribunal’s finding that she was an employee and there was the irreducible minimum of obligation between the parties.