Lomond Legal provides employment law advisory and HR consultancy services. Legal representation for US matters is provided by licensed counsel working alongside our advisory team.
Meet Julie
Meet Tony
Founder, advisory lead
Julie Barnett is the Founder of Lomond Legal and Holly Blue Employment Law, and has spent almost two decades advising and defending employers on employment law and workforce risk across the United Kingdom and United States.
Qualified as an employment lawyer in the United Kingdom, Julie works with US employers as an employment law advisor and HR consultant. Where matters in Arizona require legal representation, she works alongside Tony, Lomond Legal's licensed Arizona attorney, ensuring clients have access to both experienced advisory support and qualified US legal counsel.
Julie works directly with business owners, HR directors, and leadership teams to manage employment risk before it escalates and to defend employers effectively when it does. Her approach combines close to twenty years litigation experience with a strong operational HR background, giving her an understanding of both the legal and commercial dimensions of every decision.
Her work with US employers focuses on:
Employment risk assessment and proactive HR frameworks
Structuring investigations, disciplinaries, and dismissal processes to be legally defensible
Supporting HR teams with complex or high-risk employee matters
EEOC charge response and pre-litigation strategy
Documentation systems and manager training
What sets Julie apart is the combination of litigation experience and day-to-day HR leadership. Many HR providers are not equipped to manage high-risk legal matters. Most law firms become involved only once issues have escalated often at significant cost. Julie bridges that gap, working with employers from early advice through to dispute resolution.
As a business owner herself, operating across the UK and US, Julie understands the realities of managing people, risk, and cost simultaneously. Her advice is deliberate, practical, commercially grounded and focused on giving employers the clarity and confidence to act decisively.
Julie offers fixed-fee support so clients have cost certainty at every stage, including when situations become more complex or contentious.
Arizona Attorney, Legal Lead
Tony is a licensed Arizona attorney and former Administrative Law Judge meaning he has sat on the other side of disputes and understands exactly how decisions are made, what evidence holds up, and where arguments succeed or fail when they are put to the test.
Before joining Lomond Legal, Tony served as an Administrative Law Judge with the Arizona Department of Economic Security, conducting impartial hearings, evaluating evidence, hearing testimony, and issuing legally binding written decisions. That experience gives him a precise understanding of procedural fairness, evidentiary standards, and how employment matters are assessed by the people who decide them.
Prior to the bench, Tony built broad litigation experience through roles with civil litigation firms and the Ventura County Public Defender's Office, including work in Veterans Treatment Court. His legal practice has included drafting and arguing motions, conducting depositions, preparing pleadings, and advocating in high-stakes matters where process, credibility, and outcome all matter.
Tony holds a Juris Doctor and a Master's degree in Dispute Resolution, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University. He also served as a Light Infantry Squad Leader with the US Army's 10th Mountain Division — an experience that shaped his disciplined, solutions-driven approach to complex problems.
At Lomond Legal, Tony provides legal representation and advice to Arizona employers, with a particular focus on defensible decision-making, properly structured processes, and resolving disputes efficiently. His background as a judge, litigator, engineer, and leader allows him to approach employment matters with calm authority and a clear-eyed understanding of how disputes are won and lost in practice.
Meet Victoria
Victoria is a paralegal supporting the Lomond Legal team across employment law and related civil matters. She combines strong technical capability with a practical, solutions-focused approach to client support.
Victoria has developed her experience within UK law firms, working on complex matters, operating to tight deadlines, and supporting high-pressure legal environments. She is organised, reliable, and consistently delivers high-quality work both independently and as part of a team.
In addition to her UK legal experience, Victoria has developing knowledge of US employment law and is currently undertaking US legal qualifications. This cross-jurisdictional focus directly supports Lomond Legal's work with employers operating across the UK and US.
Join the Team
We are building something deliberately different. If that appeals to you, we would like to hear from you.
Lomond Legal sits at the intersection of employment law and HR leadership. A combination that most firms do not get right, because most firms treat them as separate disciplines.
We do not.
Our work requires people who can move between legal precision and commercial judgment, who understand that the best advice is not always the most technically correct answer, and who are as comfortable talking to a business owner about a difficult employee situation as they are analysing case law.
We are a growing practice and we are selective about who joins us. We are not looking for people who want a conventional legal career. We are looking for people who want to build something, who bring genuine expertise, and who are energized by work that is practical, high-stakes, and genuinely useful to the businesses we serve.
We operate across the UK and US, which means we offer something rare, exposure to two employment law systems, cross-jurisdictional work, and a client base that spans both markets.
We are particularly interested in hearing from:
Employment lawyers (UK or US qualified) with employer-side experience
HR professionals with experience in complex or high-risk employee relations
Paralegals with employment law background looking for a more substantive role
People with tribunal, EEOC, or administrative law experience on either side
What working with us looks like:
We are a close team. Work is substantive and varied. You deal directly with clients and with situations that matter, not document review, not admin, not being managed by someone who has never done the job. Fixed-fee work means there is no pressure to bill hours. The focus is on outcomes.
We are growing in Arizona and across the US, which means there is genuine opportunity for the right people to build their career alongside the practice.
To start a conversation:
Send a brief note , not a formal application telling us who you are, what you are good at, and why Lomond Legal interests you. We respond to every message personally.
We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the employers and employees we serve.