Anna Lees is a Director at Cleveland & Co with over 20 years of specialist experience in employment law. She advises both senior executives and employers across the full spectrum of employment matters, combining technical expertise with strategic clarity, discretion, and commercial pragmatism.
Anna began her legal career training at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, one of the world’s leading international law firms, before spending a decade at Addleshaw Goddard, where she acted for major corporates on high-profile and complex employment issues. Recognised by The Legal 500 as a leading employment lawyer, Anna is praised for her structured, candid, and balanced approach, and her ability to deliver solutions that are grounded in both legal rigour and real-world business needs.
At Cleveland & Co, Anna provides advice on contentious and non-contentious employment matters including discrimination claims, whistleblowing, strategic exits, restrictive covenants, complex grievances and disciplinaries, and tribunal litigation. She is especially experienced in managing sensitive, high-stakes disputes and is known for her calm, clear-headed support during organisational and individual transitions. Her practice spans advisory, advocacy, negotiation, and preventative training, and she is frequently called on to deliver in-house workshops for leadership and HR teams.
Anna’s clients range from FTSE 100 companies to senior professionals and SMEs across sectors including finance, legal, and professional services. Her ability to partner with both legal and operational stakeholders makes her a valued strategic adviser in moments of change, risk, or challenge.
Her core areas of expertise include employment tribunals, discrimination and whistleblowing claims, collective redundancy consultations, investigations, executive service agreements, grievance and disciplinary procedures, injunctions, and employment documentation reviews.
Anna’s work reflects Cleveland & Co’s values of integrity, clarity, and commercial effectiveness. She is known for combining hard work and humour, and for creating a safe, collaborative space where clients can navigate sensitive legal issues with confidence and perspective.
Outside of work, Anna enjoys playing netball, walking her dog, and spending time outdoors, finding balance in both movement and community.
Anna has experience in relation to advising employers on:
- Collective Redundancies
- Complex grievances
- Contentious and non-contentious employment issues
- Disciplinary matters
- Discrimination claims
- Employee Handbooks
- Employment agreements
- Employment law aspects of business sales, mergers, and acquisitions
- Employment Law Training
- Employment policies
- Employment related due diligence
- Employment status (including IR35 advice)
- Employment tribunal litigation
- Exit packages
- Grievances
- Injunctions
- Investigations
- Redundancy processes
- Restrictive covenants
- Settlement agreements
- Strategic exists
- Strategic exits.
- TUPE
- Whistleblowing
- Law Society of England and Wales
- Leading lawyer in Legal 500
- LLB Law – The University of Nottingham
- Qualified as a Solicitor in England & Wales
- English
Anna Lees has over 15 years’ experience in the employment industry, training in international law firm Freshfields and working for Addleshaw Goddard for 10 years. Anna acts for individuals (including senior executives) and companies, from small local businesses to FTSE 100 companies.
Anna in particular, has significant experience of advising on employment tribunals, including complex discrimination claims, injunctions and strategic exits.
Anna also runs training courses for businesses and training managers on all aspects of employment law. The Legal 500 (2019) has Anna as a leading employment lawyer and says she “inspires confidence with her candid, balanced and structured approach”.
LLB Law- The University of Nottingham
