Usha qualified as a solicitor in 2000 and joined Bermans in December 2024 as a Partner in our Commercial Property Team.
Usha graduated with a pure LLB Honours law degree in Liverpool and subsequently undertook the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law in Chester. Prior to joining Bermans Usha has previously worked in a large international law firm and subsequently a large northern based firm.
Currently Usha has a focus on :
commercial property management and non-contentious landlord and tenant law
acquisition and disposal of freehold and leasehold business premises
specialist healthcare transactions such as dentists and pharmacies
portfolio management in respect of asset management matters, particularly shopping centres and other multi let properties.
A member of the Liverpool Law Society Equality Diversity & Inclusion Committee, sitting on the Cheshire and Merseyside Legal Diversity Group and leading her previous firms REACH Group (“Race Equality and Cultural Heritage”), Usha takes a keen interest improving diversity in law firms through access, recruitment and progression. She was named as a finalist in the 2023 Northern Power Women awards in the “Agent of Change” category.
Alongside her day job Usha is a keen chef and specialises in cooking Rajasthani recipes, handed down from her family.
Usha is recognised as a ‘Leading Associate’ by the Legal 500 (2025 edition) which notes Usha as a key name in Commercial Property in the Liverpool City Region.
Maggie joined Bermans in 2005 as an Office Junior and is now a Litigation Assistant in our Creditor Services team.
Maggie started her career at Bermans as an Office Junior before becoming a Legal Secretary, a role in which she which she stayed in for many years. Maggie predominantly deals with prelegal correspondence and process driven claims and enforcement.
A warehouse worker has lost his discrimination claim after complaining about his boss having the name ‘Willy’. In Aylmer v Dnata Catering, the Claimant objected to his boss, William McGinty, referring to himself as ‘Willy’. The Claimant asked his boss to avoid using the name because of its other common use as a slang term for penis. He said in an email to his boss: “If you don’t remove it and keep insisting on being called that – I consider it as sexual harassment.” When his complaints were not followed up, he claimed that he had been victimised on the basis that his initial complaints related to sexual harassment.
Contracts of employment often include a provision which states that employers are able to alter an employee’s powers and responsibilities. A recent High Court decision serves as a reminder that such clauses are not without limit, and must be exercised in such a way that trust and confidence in the employment relationship is not undermined.
Indirect discrimination occurs where an employer has a provision, criterion or practice (known as a ‘PCP’) which places people with a certain protected characteristic, and also places the person complaining, at a particular disadvantage when compared to people without that characteristic. An example might include a restrictive working pattern which women (who are acknowledged to statistically take the higher childcare burden) find more difficult to comply with than men. An employee impacted by this work pattern could allege indirect discrimination.
Most employers use standard contractual documentation which is issued to new recruits without much thought. A recent Court of Appeal decision, relating to a commercial contract, serves as a reminder that a lax approach to contractual wording can have big implications, and not just in a commercial context. It is just as important for contracts of employment and settlement agreements. Employers need to make sure they have covered exactly what they want to cover.
It has been confirmed that the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 will not be brought into force this autumn, as originally expected. The Act gave workers with uncertain hours the right to request predictability about their working days and times, the number of hours worked, and the length of their contract. The Act received Royal Assent in September 2023 and ACAS had published a draft Code of Practice on handling requests made under it. This now all looks to have been shelved.
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