partner | legal counsel
magdalena.rycak@rycak.pl |
Legal Counsel | PhD in Law | Expert in Employment Law, HR and Data Protection
Dr Magdalena Rycak is a legal counsel (attorney-at-law), holder of a PhD in Law, and a recognised expert in employment law and personal data protection in the workplace. For more than 20 years, she has advised employers, executive management teams, HR departments, employers’ organisations, and trade unions on all aspects of individual and collective labour law.
She is a co-founder of Rycak Labour Law & HR Law Firm, a boutique practice specialising exclusively in employment law. In her legal practice, she supports employers in employment litigation, workforce restructurings, negotiations with trade unions, implementation of compliance procedures, whistleblower protection frameworks, anti-harassment and anti-bullying measures, and legal risk management within organisations.
For many years, she has advised businesses on working time regulations, remuneration systems, individual and collective redundancies, social dialogue, employee data protection, and compliance of HR processes with both national and European legal requirements. She also assists organisations in projects involving the use of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence in the workplace.
Dr Rycak is widely recognised as a leading authority on working time law. She devoted her doctoral dissertation to this subject under the supervision of Professor Ludwik Florek at the University of Warsaw and has authored numerous academic publications, legal commentaries, and expert opinions that are extensively relied upon by employers, legal practitioners, and HR professionals.
Between 2012 and 2015, she served as a Deputy Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe. This experience enabled her to expand her practical expertise in the application of law in an international environment and to gain an in-depth understanding of the functioning of European institutions.
For many years, she has been actively involved in expert work relating to social dialogue. She served as a long-standing legal expert to the National Commission of NSZZ “Solidarity” and authored numerous legal opinions and expert reports concerning legislative developments in employment law and labour market regulation.
Dr Rycak is the author and co-author of more than 80 academic publications and several hundred practical publications in the fields of employment law, working time law, personal data protection, and HR. She regularly publishes articles in leading Polish legal and business newspapers, including Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and Rzeczpospolita, and frequently comments on major employment law developments for national media outlets such as TVN24, TVN, Polsat News, TVP, Polish Radio, Radio 357, and TOK FM.
For over two decades, she has delivered training programmes for employers, managers, HR professionals, lawyers, data protection officers, and social partners. She has conducted several thousand hours of professional training covering employment law, personal data protection, prevention of workplace harassment and bullying, pay transparency, whistleblower protection, and the use of artificial intelligence in employment.
At Łazarski University, she serves as Director of the Institute of Employment Law and Work-Life Balance. She also heads the postgraduate programmes Employment Law and Social Security – HR and Payroll and Personal Data Protection and Information Security Management, educating lawyers, HR professionals, managers, and data protection officers from across Poland.
She currently serves as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration for Scientific Development and Innovation.
Areas of Expertise
- Employment Law
- Working Time Law
- Workforce Restructuring
- Individual and Collective Redundancies
- Employment Litigation and Workplace Disputes
- Workplace Harassment (Mobbing) and Discrimination
- Social Dialogue and Trade Union Relations
- Employee Personal Data Protection
- GDPR Compliance in HR
- HR Compliance
- Whistleblower Protection
- Artificial Intelligence in Employment
- Pay Transparency and Equal Pay Compliance
