Dismissing Senior Executives

High stakes. Tight margins. No room for mistakes.

Dismissing Senior Executives is a practical guide for HR leaders and in-house counsel who need to plan, negotiate, and execute senior exits cleanly and lawfully. It combines legal clarity with commercial tactics so you can protect the business and get the exit right-whether due to misconduct, capability, redundancy, or shifting boardroom dynamics.

What you'll learn

• How to map roles and risks when an executive is an employee, statutory director, and shareholder.


• How to use notice, PILON, and garden leave to control timing and protect covenants-plus what recent cases mean for you.


• How to safeguard IP, confidential information, and enforceable post-termination restrictions.


• How to run fair processes for gross misconduct, redundancy, and capability at executive level.


• How to run protected conversations and "without prejudice" negotiations that hold up if talks break down.


• When listed-company disclosures, SMCR, or other regulatory duties are triggered by a departure.

Inside the book

• Step-by-step chapters on status, contracts, covenants, unfair dismissal, misconduct, redundancy, and capability.


• Board-ready guidance on authority, separation of roles, and representation in high-risk processes.


• Templates and tools: checklist for dismissing senior executives; model service-agreement clauses; model settlement-agreement clauses; draft resignation letter from directorship.


• Clear, tactical advice distilled into real-world takeaways for fast execution.

Who it's for

HR Directors, Heads of People, in-house counsel, and senior managers who own C-suite or director-level exits and need a tight, defensible playbook.

About the authors

Daniel Barnett is an employment law barrister in London, founder of the HR Inner Circle, a leading trainer on employment law, and presenter of LBC's Legal Hour. Francesca Read is an employment lawyer with 20+ years' experience in private practice and professional support roles with HR Inner Circle.

Series: Book 21 in the HR Inner Circle Employment Law Library.