What can I do for you?
I’m a specialist in our technology and commerce team and have developed particular expertise in partnership arrangements. My work enables my clients to get the best from their business deals. Principally, this is by drafting and advising on business-to-business contracts: from large outsourcing contracts to terms and conditions of business, and from agency to franchise and distribution agreements.
I also help my partnership clients, mainly GP practices, manage their businesses effectively by making sure they get the right advice on their partnership agreements, employment, property and personal wealth protection issues.
Supporting my clients’ ambitions
A recent highlight for me was being seconded to the University of East Anglia, helping it to invest a £3.5 million fund in very early-stage businesses designed to reduce carbon emissions. The secondment involved working in our client’s office for a few days a week for a year. There was a wide range of investment methods used, so I worked closely with our intellectual property and corporate specialists to make sure that our client succeeded in running an effective investment round.
It was also interesting to advise a cluster of GP practices on the creation of a limited liability partnership, which they could use in practice-based commissioning. This gave the clients a formal structure to hold funds and govern their decision-making processes. With the recent Health White Paper and Bill, this work has now developed into advising GP practices on the issues involved in GP consortia and GP commissioning.
What do others say?
The most rewarding comments come from my clients. A client that we advised on the termination of an agency agreement with a commercial agent commented that I was “very, very helpful … added considerably to my knowledge about a key part of our business”. Another client responded to my work on a joint venture contract with: “many thanks for your swift response, helpful as always”.
What else should you know?
I am a latecomer to the law, having studied for a PhD in Chemistry and then worked as a research science manager at British Sugar. I would say that I’m a much better lawyer for having done something else beforehand. It lets me appreciate what a client wants from their lawyer and how they use legal advice.