Tuesday, 14 April 2026
09:15 - 13:30
(
4 hours 15 mins )
In Person
Employment tribunals can be intimidating and more formal than many expect. This interactive half-day workshop gives HR professionals and business owners the chance to experience a tribunal in a safe, supportive, and engaging environment.
Through a mock tribunal hearing, chaired by an experienced Employment Tribunal Chair, you’ll observe a realistic case, learning tribunal etiquette, effective preparation, and how evidence is presented. The team at Tughans will guide you through the ET1 Claim form and ET3 Response form, witness statements, hearing bundles and more, with expert support.
This workshop is ideal for employers and HR professionals who want practical experience and insight into the tribunal process.
Experience a mock employment tribunal first-hand. Learn tribunal etiquette, preparation, and witness presentation in a safe, engaging environment. Perfect for HR professionals and business owners wanting practical insight and confidence to handle real cases.
Find out what to expect at our Mock Employment Tribunal Hearing in the programme below:
Light breakfast will be provided.
A welcome from Julie Holmes, Knowledge Partner, Legal Island
Patricia Rooney, Partner and Head of the Employment team at Tughans, will look at the life cycle of a typical claim in the Industrial or Fair Employment Tribunal. Before the hearing, our experts will guide you through tribunal materials from ET1 (claim) and ET3 (response) forms to witness statements, helping you understand each stage of the process. Patricia will also share her experiences of what to ‘expect on the day’ of the hearing itself, from the point of arrival at the ET to giving evidence to understanding the decision.
Patricia will consider the practical aspects of preparing the case, looking at the specific case study, highlighting any documents that will bear particular importance at the hearing. She will take you through some practical tips on how to always be prepared for a hearing and which will inevitably assist with an employer’s defence.
This session will include 5 minutes for Q&A.
Our Chair of the Tribunal hearing, Martin O’Brien LLB, with his expertise as a past member of the judiciary of the Industrial Tribunals & The Fair Employment Tribunal, will outline the practical and procedural elements of a hearing from an arbitrator’s perspective, highlighting the do's and don'ts, and offering practical tips in line with NIET guidance.
Sean Doherty and Emma McIlveen, Barristers at Law, will act as representatives for the employer and employee, while running an employment tribunal hearing based on the case study.
Martin will be overseeing the hearing as the Chair of the Tribunal. You will see both representatives questioning witnesses, played by Jack Balmer, Director and Emma Doherty, Associate Solicitor at Tughans, just as you would at a hearing, in order for you to gain a practical understanding of the tribunal process.
Before Martin delivers the decision, he will lead a discussion on the hearing to determine what the most likely outcome will be and to highlight where any of the parties may or may not have gone wrong.
Martin, as acting Tribunal Chair on the day, will deliver his decision on the hearing.
A final look at the takeaways from the day.
Jack is a director in the employment team at Tughans LLP and supports clients on all aspects of employment law.
Much of his work involves:
Restructuring, redundancy and TUPE processes.
Conduct and performance management.
Employee exits and pre-termination negotiations.
Post-termination restrictions and enforcement.
HR support, employment contracts and policies.
Workplace data privacy, including monitoring, background checks and subject access requests.
Jack regularly represents clients in the courts and tribunals, often in complex and high value claims. He has appeared in the tribunals, county courts and Court of Appeal.
Jack is qualified to practice in both Northern Ireland and England & Wales and has particular expertise advising UK-wide and multinational employers operating in Northern Ireland.
His recent experience includes:
Jack is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and Employment Lawyers Group NI and regularly contributes to Legal Island.
Tughans LLP
Phone: 028 9055 3300
Email: emma.doherty@tughans.com
Website: www.tughans.com
Sean Doherty was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2007 after graduating with a LL.B (Hons) Law and Politics from Ulster University at Magee in 2005. Sean's main areas of practice include Commercial Law, Employment Law, Insolvency and Land Law.
Emma is an experienced civil practitioner with a broad and sophisticated practice spanning employment, public law, criminal and regulatory work, coronial proceedings, and trusts and estates. She regularly appears before courts, tribunals and inquests and is qualified to practise in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain. Emma is frequently instructed in complex, sensitive and high-stakes disputes, often involving vulnerable individuals, public bodies and significant reputational/regulatory risk, and is particularly valued for her ability to manage cases where civil, criminal and public law issues overlap.
Martin is a practising Barrister specialising in Criminal Law, Human Rights, Employment and Discrimination issues. He is a former part-time Chair of Industrial Tribunals & The Fair Employment Tribunal, a Chairman of Appeals Tribunals, and a lecturer at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen's University Belfast.
Patricia is Partner and Head of the Employment team at Tughans.
Patricia is a senior lawyer with extensive experience in dealing with both contentious and non-contentious employment matters. Patricia specialises in TUPE/outsourcing matters and regularly advises administrators on redundancy, “pre-pack” administrations and their TUPE obligations.
Patricia is qualified in NI and ROI and works regularly with clients with an all-Ireland presence. She is also qualified in England & Wales. She has appeared in the Industrial Court on union recognition matters, in the Industrial & Fair Employment Tribunal, before the NI Court of Appeal, and before the WRC and Labour Court in Ireland and the Employment Tribunal.
Patricia is very highly regarded, with a broad range of clients across all sectors, advising on all aspects of employment law, from recruitment to dismissal. She has extensive experience in transactional work, working closely with her corporate colleagues and has broad experience in advising on mergers and acquisitions and TUPE/Service Provision Change.
Patricia regularly speaks on employment law and developments, presenting the Employment team’s breakfast briefings. She also lectures in the UU/Legal Island Post-Graduate Diploma in Employment Law and has provided tailored training and seminars on various topics and regularly writes articles, including monthly articles for an all-Ireland human resource training provider.
She is a member of the Council of the CBI in Northern Ireland as well as a member of the Employment Lawyers Group (NI).
Patricia’s clients include non-departmental public sector bodies and employers throughout the UK.
