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Graham Vials

Head of Education Law & Partner, Ward Hadaway

Graham is a Partner and heads up the Education team at Ward Hadaway, leading a large team of lawyers across our offices who are dedicated and passionate about providing a full range of legal services to the education sector.

He has advised education establishments for approximately 15 years and is recognised in Legal 500 for his expertise in this sector.

He has developed a special interest in advising nursery schools, independent schools, academies, Multi-Academy Trusts and Maintained Schools and understands the opportunities and challenges they face.

Graham has vast experience in advising employer clients on a wide range of employment law and HR matters, such as disciplinary and performance management issues, grievance issues, restructuring and redundancy exercises, TUPE, exit strategies and advising on settlement agreements.  He takes a pragmatic and commercial approach to achieve his client’s aims and objectives.

He also conducts all of his own advocacy in the Employment Tribunal and has successfully defended a wide range of claims across the country, including unfair dismissal, race, sex, pregnancy and disability discrimination, whistleblowing and unlawful deduction from wages claims.

He is also one of the few lawyers who specialises in providing Education Law advice, including advice on parental complaints, school admissions, pupil exclusions and special education needs (SEN) issues.  He has successfully defended pupil discrimination claims in the First-Tier SEND Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal.