Charles Russell to set up equal opportunity training company...

Charles Russell is setting up an employment consultancy company inpartnership with a

human resources firm.It is understood to be the first time that a law firm has entered

intosuch a venture.The company will offer bespoke advice to commercial clients

coveringissues from updates on employment law to practical advice on how to

tacklepersonnel issues.It will be targeted, intially at least, towards Charles Russell's

clients,mainly City institutions.Final details of the company are still being discussed

and the firm didnot wish to disclose the name of the human resources firm involved,

butCharles Russell hopes to have the company up and running by the autumn.It would

probably be run as a separate entity to the law firm."We have spotted a gap in the

market for equal opportunities training,"explains Charles Russell's head of employment

David Green."We will be going into people's premises and talking to them about the

issue."The consultancy will aim to make it clear to companies that it is notenough just

to have an internal equal opportunities policy if staff are notsure of its contents."A

tribunal will expect employers to know what their policy actually isand if they don't,

then they will probably lose the case," says Green.Dibb Lupton Alsop has a training

subsidiary, which is not a separatecompany, that gives advice to outside companies on

employment law matters.It was set up in 1993 and was the brainchild of London managing

partnerPaul Nicholls.However, the training given is purely on employment law, although

thesubsidiary is looking to branch out into training on other legal areas,such as

aviation law.However, no human resources training is offered.Charles Russell recently

represented Suresh Anisetti, an Indian-born Cityfinancier who won a racial

discrimination case against Tokyo MitsubishiInternational bank.Anisetti, who earned u1m

a year, is expected to win one of thelargest-ever employment tribunal awards. He claimed

that he was excludedfrom meetings and demoted because he was not Japanese.