In this edition:
• The ECJ rule that legislation allowing for employees to be dismissed if they reach specified absence thresholds could be indirectly discriminatory, where the absences are linked to disability, and there is no justification.
• The EAT holds that dismissals by non-renewal of a fixed-term contract are not a special case attracting different considerations from those ordinarily considered under the normal test of ‘reasonableness’.
• A report released by the Fawcett Society, following concerns that rights could be eroded or weakened as a result of Brexit, concludes that the UK’s legal system is failing women and needs fundamental reform.
• Stonewall has released its annual list of Top 100 LGBT-inclusive employers, which for the first time, marked employers specifically on trans inclusivity, in addition to their work on LGB inclusive policies.

We’re delighted to have been recognised again as one of the UK’s Top law firms in The Times’ Best Law Firms 2026. SMB is ranked as one of the leading firms for Family, Crime and Company & Commercial law.
Read moreRecently published independent legal directories, Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 have once again recommended SMB across multiple practice areas.
Read moreWe’re delighted to have advised our client, John Gore Studios, on its majority investment into Hilltop Screen, the television production company recently founded by drama producer, Hilary Bevan Jones.
Read more