About Zhan Associates
Someone in your corner when it matters most.
Zhan Associates is a specialist workplace defence consultancy. We stand alongside employees facing disciplinary and appeal hearings, preparing the case, protecting the process, and speaking with authority in the room.
Who we are
A steady hand in a difficult moment
Being accused at work is isolating. The letter arrives, the process moves quickly, and most people face it with no idea what their rights are or how a hearing actually works. Zhan Associates exists for that moment. We are a dedicated workplace defence practice, and our single focus is representing the employee when their job, their income and their good name are on the line.
We are not a firm of solicitors and we do not provide reserved legal activities or legal advice. What we provide is specialist workplace representation, forensic case preparation and calm, measured advocacy at the hearing itself. That distinction matters, and we are precise about it, because it is the foundation of a standing that cannot be challenged in the room.
How we prepare
What forensic preparation actually means
Competence in this work is not presence in the room. It is what has been done before anyone walks into it. Three disciplines run through every case, and together they are why a prepared representative changes the balance of a hearing.
Benchmarking against the ACAS Code. Every step the employer has taken is mapped against the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures: whether the investigation was even-handed, whether the allegations were put in writing in enough detail to answer, whether the hearing and any appeal were handled by people who should have handled them. An unreasonable failure to follow the Code is not a technicality. A tribunal can adjust an award by up to twenty-five per cent for it, which makes procedure leverage rather than housekeeping.
Stress-testing the evidence. Each allegation is separated and measured against what the employer actually has to prove. Witness statements, investigation notes and the documentary bundle are read for inconsistency, omission and the distance between what is asserted and what is shown. The question is never whether an account sounds plausible. It is whether the material in the file supports it.
Challenging the procedure on the record. Where the process has failed, the failure is put formally at the hearing and recorded rather than saved for a later stage. That record is what protects an appeal and strengthens any tribunal claim that follows, and it is often what shifts a decision while the decision can still be shifted.
None of this is a script, and every matter turns on its own facts. What carries across all of them is method: read the file the way the other side will read it, and answer it before it hardens into a finding.
Meet your representative
Who will actually be in the room
Accredited by Unite the Union
Shakil Dixon
Founder and Principal Representative
Trade Union Representative accredited by Unite the Union
Over thirty-five years of front-line representation and workplace practice across the public and private sector. Accredited by Unite the Union as competent to accompany a worker under Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999.
That background means a case is read the way the other side will read it, and answered before it becomes a problem. It also means the room itself is familiar. Thirty-five years of sitting on the employee’s side of the table changes what you notice, and how quickly you notice it.
Shakil’s professional profile on LinkedIn →Career
Thirty-five years, and where they were spent
- Present
Accredited Support Companion, Unite the Union. Workplace representation at hearings, principally disciplinary and grievance. Supporting members through disciplinary, appeal and grievance procedures, preparing case documentation and representation statements.
- Ten years
Senior Workplace Representative, UNISON. Representing members at formal disciplinary and grievance hearings, leading casework management across complex employment matters, advising on employment legislation and policy interpretation, negotiating settlements and dispute resolutions, and acting as liaison between the workforce and senior management.
- Sixteen years
Equality and Diversity Lead, Welsh Assembly Government and Birmingham City Council. Developing and implementing equality strategies aligned to legislation, ensuring compliance with the Equality Act and diversity frameworks, delivering training on inclusion and organisational culture, and managing sensitive workplace matters involving discrimination and fairness.
- Six years
Client Financial Services Manager, Social Care and Health, Birmingham City Council. Client financial governance and compliance, risk management and regulatory adherence, and service delivery and operational performance.
- Five years
Business Analyst and Consultant, private sector. Business improvement and change management initiatives, policy reviews and organisational diagnostics, and strategic advisory support to leadership teams.
In his own words
A message from the founder
Throughout my career, I have seen the profound difference that effective representation can make. I have also seen what happens when people have no one to stand beside them. Too often, employees are left to face disciplinary hearings, investigations or dismissal on their own, not because their case lacks merit, but because they are not members of a trade union or cannot justify the cost of specialist legal representation.
That has never sat comfortably with me.
I founded Zhan Associates because I believe that access to workplace representation should not be determined by membership, status or financial circumstances. When your career, your reputation and your livelihood are at risk, everyone deserves the opportunity to be heard, to understand their rights and to have someone in their corner who will advocate for them with professionalism, integrity and determination.
For me, this is about more than resolving workplace disputes. It is about restoring confidence to people during some of the most challenging moments of their working lives. Every client has a story. Every client deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Every client deserves someone who will prepare thoroughly, challenge unfairness where it exists and ensure their voice is not lost in the process.
Those principles are the foundation of Zhan Associates. They shape every piece of advice we give, every strategy we develop and every client we represent. My commitment is simple: when you need someone in your corner, you will have someone who listens, prepares and delivers your defence with confidence and conviction.
Checkable facts
What you can verify before you instruct us
Every item below can be checked by you or by anyone advising you. There are no success rates and no outcome statistics here, because we do not publish them: no service can guarantee an outcome, and any practice implying otherwise is misleading you at the worst possible moment.
No obligation
What happens when you contact us
Your options
Union representative, solicitor, or us
All three are legitimate and each suits different circumstances. If you are a union member with an available representative, use them: it is a service you have already paid for through your subscription, and a good union representative is very good indeed. This table is here because most of the people who contact us are not in that position, either because they are not members or because they joined too recently to qualify for support.
| Union representative | Solicitor | Zhan Associates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right to attend an internal hearing | Yes, within the Section 10 categories | No right of entry. Attendance needs the employer’s agreement | Yes, as a certified trade union representative within the Section 10 categories |
| Who can use it | Members, usually after a qualifying period | Anyone who can fund it | Anyone. No membership and no qualifying period |
| Cost to you | Included in your subscription | Typically charged by the hour | A fixed fee, scaled to your salary, agreed before work begins |
| Availability at short notice | Varies by branch and caseload | Usually available, at a price | Urgent instructions prioritised, work starts the same day |
| Reserved legal activities and court advocacy | No | Yes | No. We are not a firm of solicitors and we refer where that is what you need |
| Best suited to | Members with an available representative, and collective issues | Complex legal advice, settlement agreements, tribunal advocacy | Internal disciplinary and appeal hearings, and tribunal preparation |
These routes are not mutually exclusive. Clients frequently use us in the room and a solicitor for independent legal advice, and we will tell you plainly when that is the better combination.
Our standing
The basis on which we enter the room
Section 10 recognises three categories of companion: a fellow worker, an official employed by a trade union, and a trade union representative certified by their union as competent to accompany a worker. Shakil Dixon falls into the third. He is a trade union representative accredited by Unite the Union as competent to accompany a worker, and that accreditation is the basis on which he attends your hearing.
We publish this because an experienced HR adviser who knows the section will ask, and because a standing that is asserted is weaker than one that is stated. Where your request to be accompanied falls within one of the three categories and is reasonable, your employer must agree to it. A solicitor acting as a solicitor sits outside those categories and can be refused, which is the practical difference between the two.
The right itself belongs to you. We exercise it on your behalf as your chosen companion, and a formal Notice of Representation goes to your employer before every hearing instruction setting out the statutory framework and the role. The question is settled in correspondence rather than in the doorway.
The accreditation is personal to your representative and establishes his competence to accompany a worker. Zhan Associates is an independent practice and is not part of Unite the Union, this is not union representation, and you do not need to be a member of Unite or of any union to instruct us.
How we operate
Prepared, present, and plain about cost
- Accredited statutory standing. We attend as your chosen companion under Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999, as a trade union representative accredited by Unite the Union as competent to accompany a worker. That is one of the three categories the section specifies, and where your request is reasonable your employer must agree to it.
- Forensic preparation. Every allegation is dissected, the evidence stress-tested, and the employer's process measured against the ACAS Code of Practice before you ever walk into the room.
- Measured advocacy. We put your case, respond on your behalf to views expressed, and confer with you throughout. Composed, never combative, and always on the merits.
- Fixed, transparent fees. Your fee is agreed in writing before any work begins, based on a clear salary band. No hourly billing, no surprises. Zhan Associates is not VAT registered, so no VAT is added.
- Confidential from first contact. Everything you share is held in strict confidence and stored securely, from the first conversation onward.
Who we represent
Employees, at the moment they need it
We act for employees, not employers. If you are facing a disciplinary allegation, a gross misconduct charge, a capability process or an appeal, we can help. We support people through internal hearings, ACAS Early Conciliation, settlement discussions and preparation for the employment tribunal.
We do not attend grievance hearings. Representation in the room is what we do at disciplinary and appeal hearings, which is where our expertise sits and where it makes the most difference. If you are raising a grievance, our guide to raising a grievance sets out how to write one that has to be answered, and you are welcome to use it without instructing anyone.
We work with people at every level, from shop floor to senior management, and across sectors. Some come to us the day the letter lands. Others arrive later, after a first hearing has gone badly, needing an appeal built properly. Either way, the earlier you make contact, the more options remain open to you.
Where we are based
Birmingham and the West Midlands in person, England and Wales virtually
Zhan Associates is based in Birmingham and represents clients across England and Wales. We attend hearings in person across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. Representation everywhere else in England and Wales is delivered virtually, by Microsoft Teams or Zoom. It is the same service, the same preparation and the same fixed fee: the statutory right to be accompanied under Section 10 does not distinguish between a companion in the room and a companion on the call, and neither do we.
Zhan Associates is the trading name of Zhan Enterprises Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 11849088). Our working hours are Monday to Friday, 10:00am to 6:00pm, and you can reach us by email, phone or WhatsApp.
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Don’t face your employer alone.
What’s said in the room matters. Tell us what has happened, and within one free call you will know where you stand, what it costs, and what happens next.