Tarun Tawakley rejoins Lewis Silkin as partner in employment litigation team

Having started his career as a trainee at Lewis Silkin in 2007, Tarun moved in-house as Head of Employment Law and Commercial Litigation at Deliveroo in 2017. In this role he assembled a team of eight specialist employment lawyers and was instrumental in defending the self-employed status of Deliveroo riders across multiple markets. He was recognised in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 in 2019 for his work, with Lewis Silkin, in helping Deliveroo be the first player in the “gig economy” to have its model upheld by the Courts in the UK. 

Effective 1 April 2021, Tarun will join Lewis Silkin’s employment litigation team, led by partners Toni Lorenzo and Michael Anderson, known for its market-leading expertise on matters including the most complex and cutting edge High Court litigation, team moves and restrictive covenant disputes.

In addition, Tarun’s experience in supporting Deliveroo through its hyper-growth, various funding rounds and imminent IPO further bolsters the firm’s successful full-service technology practice, which advises some of the biggest names in the industry, from global tech companies headquartered in San Francisco through to some of the UK’s most innovative and rapidly growing start-ups.

Richard Miskella, Joint Managing Partner at Lewis Silkin, said:

“It gives me huge pleasure to welcome Tarun back to Lewis Silkin following a fantastic four years at Deliveroo. Clearly his talents are an exciting boost to our growing employment litigation offering as well as an enhancement of our market-leading expertise in the technology-led industries. But it is also a ringing endorsement of our firm culture that having trained with us, and then become a client, we are welcoming Tarun back as a friend and colleague for the next phase of his career. His extensive experience, including on High Court matters and Employment Tribunals, as well as his client-side insight, further deepens our capabilities and strengthens our position as the firm of choice for innovative businesses and those with complex people and workplace requirements.”

Tarun Tawakley added:

“As someone who trained at Lewis Silkin and went on to become a client of the firm, I have seen first-hand the strength and commitment of the employment litigation team which is renowned for dealing with some of the most complex and cutting-edge cases. This includes those carrying significant reputational risk, whether they reach the High Court or are resolved before reaching a public hearing. I’m very pleased to be returning to the firm to build on this success and to use my in-house experience to deliver on what matters most for our clients.”