Foulston: Claims withdrawn
Listed legal business RBG Holdings has reached a £500,000 settlement with its former chief executive, who it fired in January after losing confidence in her.
The payment comprises £200,000 of agreed damages for breach of contract and £300,000 in legal costs, to be paid in equal instalments over the next year.
Nicky Foulston’s claims for wrongful dismissal and breach of contract sought damages of more than £1.2m, according to a statement RBG issued to the stock exchange this morning.
RBG – which owns the London law firms Rosenblatt and Memery Crystal – has withdrawn the allegations of breach of fiduciary duty that were in its counterclaim. It said the settlement followed alternative dispute resolution.
A non-lawyer who was a long-standing client of Rosenblatt before joining it in 2016, Ms Foulston led the firm onto AIM two years later.
The company said in January [1] that Ms Foulston’s employment contract had been terminated with immediate effect “as a result of cultural concerns and the execution of the group’s strategy”.
Soon after, an employment tribunal decision revealed that she had used a highly offensive racial term [2] at a dinner attended by a Black lawyer.
The full hearing of Noel Deans’ claim for unfair dismissal, race discrimination, whistleblowing protection, victimisation, harassment and failure to provide a safe place of work has been taking place this month.
Ms Foulston had a 12% stake in the business, making her the third largest shareholder, and it is not clear what has happened to that – there have been no announcements about her selling up but she is no longer listed among RBG’s significant shareholders.
RBG’s recent half-year results [3] said that the group has “de-risked” and begun paying down its debt, but profits have been slashed.
The company’s share price is currently 21p, just shy of the all-time low of 17.4p in July. It hit a high of 160p in July 2021.