Practical LawConferences

James Hanlon is a barrister and Head of Legal for IKEA UK and Ireland, a home furnishing manufacturer, retailer and distributor with a presence in a number of markets.
He is responsible for providing advice on matters ranging from governance, ecommerce, data protection and intellectual property to commercial contracts and consumer finance. He is responsible for ensuring compliance with legality across the UK and Ireland in IKEA’s shops as well as warehouses and also advises on international initiatives connected to the retail and distribution elements of the IKEA brand. James practised as a barrister in private practice working in Chambers providing both advocacy and advisory services in the fields of tax, regulatory actions, crime and civil.

Jonathan is Group Legal Manager at WH Smith plc, a role he has held since August 2011. Prior to this, Jonathan was Head of Legal and Company Secretary of Scotia Gas Networks (a subsidiary of SSE plc) following a stint in private practice.

In his role at WH Smith plc, Jonathan has advised on a range of joint venture and other commercial arrangements, assisting WH Smith to develop its presence both domestically and in foreign jurisdictions including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malta, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, China, India and France.  Most recently, Jonathan acted on the renewal (and extension) of commercial arrangements with Post Office Limited for the development of a network of franchised and concessionaire Post Office stores within selected WHSmith branches.

With previous experience in private practice and public enforcement at the CMA and European Commission, Edward now advises Sainsbury’s Operating Board and senior stakeholders on commercial and competition law matters. He enjoys leading a large in-house team of commercial and competition lawyers, ensuring advice is aligned with Sainsbury’s risk appetite and brand.  With a strong competition background, compliance/risk management across grocery and Sainsbury’s various JVs is a key focus alongside a broad range of commercial agreements. He has also recently instigated reviews of Legal’s ways of working with other parts of the Sainsbury’s business, through outsourcing or increased use of precedents and guidance. He started last year advising on the corporate aspects of Sainsbury’s sale of its pharmacy business to Celesio (Lloyds) and has been responsible since 2012 for a multidisciplinary team suing MasterCard for retailer  interchange fees, which will be the first case to judgment with potential repercussions for all retailers. He was listed in the The Lawyer’s Hot 100 In house lawyer 2015 and European Competition Lawyer of the year in the 2016 European Counsel Awards, in association with the ACC.

Senior solicitor working at Home Retail Group plc, providing a broad base of commercial, compliance and strategic legal support for group businesses Argos, Habitat and formerly Homebase. Group wide responsibility for compliance, dispute resolution and legal training.

Peter is General Counsel, Godiva International and Global Projects with responsibility for all Godiva’s markets outside North America, principally in Europe, the Middle East, Japan, China and Pac Rim. Godiva is the world’s leading premium chocolatier with origins in Belgium but now with approximately 700 stores worldwide and is present in over 100 countries. Prior to Godiva, Peter was a senior corporate counsel at SABMiller and before that he trained and practised as a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Peter was recently awarded Global Legal Post’s Luxury Business General Counsel of the Year 2016.

Alison advises a wide range of retailers and consumer goods businesses on all aspects of information law. She has extensive experience advising on data protection compliance issues, including drafting privacy notices and policies, delivering training, advising on international data transfers, advising on marketing compliance issues, dealing with ICO investigations, conducting audits, managing data breach incidents and advising on data sharing arrangements.

Alison is a member of the National Association of Data Protection Officers and the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She is a regular speaker at various industry events including ‘The Future of Data Protection Law Forum’ run by Practical Law and has recently established a practical think tank for retailers and other organisations to facilitate thought leadership and discussion on a range of data protection and privacy matters relating to implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Jeremy is a Partner and Head of the IP, Technology and Outsourcing Group.

He has extensive experience of both contentious and non-contentious IP and technology matters. Core work areas include trade marks, passing-off, copyright, design rights, patents and technology. Much of the practice has an international flavour.

Clients include household names in many industry sectors including retail, fashion, media, sport, technology, publishing and insurance.

Jeremy is the co-author of an overview of UK copyright, Getting the Deal Through – Copyright 2011 which provides country by country analysis, with chapters provided by leading IP practices in key jurisdictions. Jeremy and David Cran have written a chapter which provides an overview of UK copyright (for both specialists and non-specialists).

Dean is a barrister and solicitor-advocate with in excess of 18 years’ experience in consumer law and is widely recognised as one of the leading authorities in the field. Throughout his career Dean has represented a number of High Street retailers and consumers in relation to various legal matters that impact on the retail sector.

Dean is now the Chief Ombudsman at The Retail Ombudsman, which deals with unresolved disputes between consumers and retailers, in relation to both online and in-store complaints.

Simon Enoch, 55, is a solicitor and company secretary with over 25 years’ experience of Corporate issues including joint ventures, M&A and  high profile corporate public relations in many European jurisdictions, the US, Japan and Australia for a number of International Companies including Kingfisher. He qualified as a solicitor in 1988

He has been the Company Secretary and General Legal Counsel at Darty plc since the demerger from Kingfisher in 2003.

My day-to-day practice involves dealing with the complete range of employment law concerns – from hirings and transfers, to discrimination, redundancies and disciplinaries. I have a particular interest and expertise in the law on family rights, maternity and sex discrimination, as well as how to deal with tricky disability and sickness absence issues.

I work with clients in a wide range of sectors, but with a particular emphasis on media and retail. One of my clients is a large national chain of restaurants that I advise on all employment and HR matters, including cost effective dispute resolution and practical steps to reduce claims for the future. A two year secondment in the legal department of a large department store in London has contributed to my retail industry knowledge and experience.

There is also an international flavour to my work. Recent examples include advising on international secondments and the transferring of senior employees across jurisdictions.

Adam advises and represents clients in the media & intellectual property field. Before private practice, he worked for many years as a barrister and also in-house for a national newspaper group. He advises clients on reputation management, including libel, privacy and harassment issues, and on protecting and enforcing IP Rights, particularly copyright, designs and trade marks. Adam is very well-known within the fashion and luxury brand industry, representing retailers, young designers, photographers and established brands. He is visiting lecturer at Conde Nast College of Fashion, and the Entrepreneurship MBA at Imperial College.

Carolyn is responsible for all legal, M&A and public and regulatory affairs for Skyscanner globally. She also sits as a Director on the board of the joint venture between Skyscanner and Yahoo Japan!. Before joining Skyscanner, she spent a number of years in a variety of legal and commercial roles within the proprietary and open-source software industry. She joined Skyscanner in 2013 from Wolfson Microelectronics plc, where she had held the role of Head of Legal for the previous 5 years.

Perran is head of TLT’s Retail & Consumer Goods group. He has a wide range of experience in all commercial matters and advises many of the UK’s leading retailers such as Sainsbury’s, The Co-operative Group, WHSmith, French Connection, Clarks and Dyson.

Perran specialises in outsourcing, distribution and supply agreements and advises on all types of business collaborations and commercial joint ventures, including franchising both in the UK and internationally. He has a wealth of experience in the retail and logistics industries, bringing trading partners together to maximise output from specific assets or to share the costs of developing new markets and concepts within the relevant legal frameworks.

Currently 10 years’ pqe and Head of Legal at Mothercare plc. The Mothercare Group operates two iconic British brands in the UK and 60 + international territories. I advise on legal and commercial affairs globally, giving input on strategic initiatives and key business risks. Day-to-day I oversee a broad range of matters including: international franchising, wholesale and concession arrangements, e-commerce, general commercial contracts, disputes, consumer protection, UK and international intellectual property/brand management, data protection, advertising, and IT.

Prior to moving in-house, I was a senior associate at Dentons, specialising in commercial and intellectual property law matters. I advised large corporates on a wide range of commercial agreements, licensing and acquisition issues as well as the exploitation, maintenance and protection of intellectual property rights. I have been involved in High Court trade mark litigation and regularly advised clients on copyright and domain name disputes.

Daniel has particular expertise in the communications, digital and technology sectors. He specialises in commercial contracts and in providing legal advice on intellectual property rights, digital content, consumer law and telecoms regulation.

Daniel joined TLT from BT, where as Head of Consumer Law he advised on the launch of BT Sport, BT TV on Youview, and BT Mobile. He has extensive experience in advising on a wide range of digital platforms and was responsible for advising BT on all consumer-facing services and products. Daniel is acknowledged as one of the leading influences on the developing law on digital content, having set up the ISP forum to consult with government on the Digital Content provisions contained within the Consumer Rights Act. Daniel recently co-authored a leading guide to the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Babette Märzheuser-Wood is Head of the Retail and Franchise Group at Dentons. She specialises in global franchise, distribution and concession agreements and IP-driven joint ventures. She has substantial experience advising retailers on international expansion strategies including multi-channel strategies, franchising and licensing, wholesale distribution and e-commerce.

Babette has transactional experience in over 100 countries.  Recent deals include work in all major emerging markets (Russia, India, China, Brazil and South Africa) as well as in the Middle East and Africa. She also advises clients on innovative structures for international expansion in the global marketplace.

John is General Counsel at the TONI&GUY group, having joined the company from Allen & Overy as its first in house counsel in 2003.  John’s responsibilities cover the TONI&GUY and Essensuals hairdressing businesses and the label.m products business.

Kate O’Leary is head of the Consumer Legal team at Vodafone UK. She is responsible for all legal aspects of Vodafone UK’s consumer business including advertising, customer terms, indirect and direct distribution, sponsorship, mobile payments and content for Vodafone’s mobile and broadband services as well as the development of Vodafone’s forthcoming TV proposition. Kate previously worked in Vodafone Group Legal where she was responsible for business development, content acquisition and mobile payments including developing the legal structure for M-PESA, the innovative money transfer service. Kate trained in private practice in London and has also spent time working in Paris and Dubai.

Duncan has considerable expertise in regulatory compliance dealing with the HSE, Environment Agency, Trading Standards, Local Authorities and the CMA. He also deals with product liability and food safety and labelling issues. He regularly advises retailers on consumer law issues and has provided recent training and advice on the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Duncan provides commercially focused contentious and non-contentious advice to major corporate clients, individual directors and senior managers. As a Solicitor Advocate, he also has excellent trial experience representing clients facing regulatory prosecutions.

Duncan recently chaired a workshop on the Modern Slavery Act and has a particular interest in this area.

Jon Riley is a Project Director at the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA). Over the last seven years, he has led market reviews, merger inquiries and consumer protection projects in a range of sectors including workplace pensions, road fuels, motor insurance, marketing, review sites and broadcast services. Prior to beginning work in the competition regulation, Jon also spent seven years working at the National Audit Office, leading both value for money studies and financial audits. He is a Chartered Accountant.

Scott Singer is the Head of Dentons’ Technology Media and Telecoms sector. He specialises in intellectual property law and commercial contracts, IT law and data privacy law.

In the field of IP, Scott has advised leading rights owners for many years on the exploitation, maintenance and protection of brands and industrial property rights and on the protection of new ideas, as well as advising some of the world’s largest rights users on the spectrum of rights licensing and acquisition issues.

Scott is well known in the field of commercial contracts. He has acted for many household names on large commercial deals, including services agreements, joint ventures, partnering arrangements, introducer agreements, sale of goods agreements, distribution agreements, franchise agreements, design and manufacturing agreements and consultancy agreements. Scott also advises on large commercial outsourcings, and has advised on the outsourcing of finance and accounts (FAO), business processes (BPO), call centres, facilities management, catering, print services and fleet management. Scott is recognised as a leading expert on Commercial Contracts in the legal directories.

James works with some of the world’s best known brands, retailers and e-commerce businesses to identify, exploit and protect their intellectual property rights.  He is a specialist advisor on disputes and litigation concerning all types of IP, with a focus on trade marks, designs and copyright, as well as helping his clients put systems and strategies in places to maximize the benefit they derive from their creative investment and innovation.  James also works with retailers and brand owners to devise and implement online and offline brand protection, domain name protection and anti-counterfeiting strategies.

Some of the trade mark cases James has worked on have had a significant bearing on the way retailers are able to advertise and promote their brand online.  Such reported cases include the landmark AdWords case between Interflora and M&S as well as Asda v Specsavers and Enterprise v Europcar which both concerned the infringements of trade marked logos.

Lisa Gan Tomlins is the General Counsel at MADE.COM, a UK-headquartered online designer furniture retailer on a mission to make great design accessible to everyone. MADE.COM was selected as one of the initial 25 companies to join the UK government’s “Future Fifty” programme for high-growth tech businesses.  Lisa joined MADE.COM in December 2014 as its first lawyer.  Since then she has assumed responsibility for legal matters across all the territories in which MADE.COM operates, as well as helped execute in July 2015 a $60 million fundraising growth round to accelerate the company’s European expansion.

Previously, Lisa was a senior lawyer at JUST EAT, the world’s largest online takeaway business with a market cap of > £2 billion. Lisa was a key member of the team that successfully executed JUST EAT’s £387m IPO and London listing in April 2014.

Before moving in-house, Lisa spent almost 10 years in private practice in London and New York as a corporate/commercial lawyer with a particular focus on international capital markets transactions.  She practised at leading international law firms Cleary Gottlieb and Debevoise & Plimpton, and was also seconded to Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Legal department.

Lisa is a dual US/UK-qualified lawyer with a first class law degree from Cambridge University and a masters in law from New York University.  She was recognised by The Lawyer magazine as one of its “Hot 100 Lawyers” in 2016.

Miles is a partner specialising in UK and EU competition law. He has over 10 years’ experience across all areas of competition law with a focus on behavioural advice, UK & EC merger control, investigations, compliance programmes and training.

Independently recognised as an expert in his field by Chambers UK, an independent guide to the legal profession, he consolidates his competition focus with extensive commercial experience including on distribution, franchising, outsourcing, manufacturing and stocking finance arrangements.

Miles has particular expertise in the manufacturing, retail, automotive, financial services and technology and media sectors.

Kate is the Lead Lawyer for Policy & Communications at Which?, supporting the organisation’s policy, advocacy, campaigning and enforcement initiatives. Kate is a qualified solicitor in the UK and Australia and practised as a commercial litigator at Linklaters LLP before joining Which?. Kate holds an LLB (UWA), BEc (UWA) and BCL (Oxon). She also holds a public appointment as the consumer representative on the Civil Procedure Rule Committee.

Which? is an independent, a-political enterprise working to achieve positive change for consumers. Its charitable activities are funded by its various commercial ventures.

Kate Anthony Wilkinson is a Solicitor and Head of Group Legal for Mulberry, an English luxury leather goods manufacturer and retailer with global presence, famous for its iconic leather bags, often seen on the arms of celebrities. She is responsible for all legal facets of Mulberry’s global business, including providing legal advice in relation to its shops, e-commerce platform, strategic direction, intellectual property, commercial contracts and UK manufacturing operations and is also responsible for Mulberry’s brand protection. Originally having been in private practice undertaking corporate finance work, previously to Mulberry, Kate was General Counsel for Alcan Aluminium, having held the position of Head of Legal and Legal Counsel for a number of packaging and metals companies. Kate is a prolific writer of articles on a variety of legal and commercial matters for UK publications and is Advisory Editor to Jordan’s ‘Company Administration & Governance’. Kate is also Trustee of a Charity in the process of establishing an aerospace museum in Bristol.

Simon manages Sky’s strategic governance approach to handling personal and other data. His role is to work with stakeholders from across the Sky group to ensure the continuous presence of a culture across the Sky which respects the protection and appropriate use of data.

Simon has extensive experience working on privacy and other programmes within large media companies in the UK, US and globally

Claude is Deputy General Counsel at Alliance Healthcare, the Pharmaceutical Wholesale and International Retail division of Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq:  WBA), the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise in the world.  Prior to joining WBA in 2012, Claude spent nine years at Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, in a range of corporate, zone and country roles in Europe, Asia and the Americas.  He qualified as a solicitor with Simmons & Simmons (Corporate) in 2000, following seats in London and Hong Kong.  Claude studied French and Spanish at Oxford University and plays the piano and organ.

Alan Buchanan works for Value Retail PLC as Director of Legal for Bicester Village and Kildare Village.

Neil is currently the Global General Counsel for Food and Refreshment at Unilever.  In this role he has responsibility for all legal matters concerning Unilever’s Food and Refreshment portfolio around the world.  The portfolio has a current value of approximately EUR 21 billion with a presence in all major countries in the world.  Together with his team he works to bring new products to market and works with major brands in the Ice Cream, Spreads, Dressings, Savoury and Tea categories.  He is also part of Unilever’s Legal Management Team and the Food and Refreshment Leadership Teams.

Neil joined Unilever in 2007, firstly in the UK and Ireland Business where he was General Counsel for 3 years, moving to this current role in late 2013.  Prior to this, he started his legal career at SJ Berwin where he trained and specialized in all forms of commercial contracts and the exploitation of Intellectual Property.  He worked there for 6 years and worked for many famous brands, including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Hilton Hotels and Christian Dior.  He also gained experience in E-Commerce, Data Protection and Competition Law.  Neil has also worked for Syngenta and run his own business.

In all Neil has been practicing as a Solicitor for over 16 years and has a BA(Law) and a BA(Social Studies) from Exeter University and also has a Diploma in Legal Practice.  Out of work Neil is married with a young family and dreams of having more time to dedicate to choral singing, cooking, baking and classic cars.

Amy is in the early stages of co-founding a consultancy providing legal advice to entrepreneurs and new businesses, with a focus on intellectual property and brand protection (the other founder is a chartered accountant who will be providing financial and business advice).

Until very recently, Amy was a senior lawyer at the John Lewis Partnership for 5 years, providing legal advice to the nation’s favourite retailers, John Lewis and Waitrose. Amy managed the trade mark portfolio of the business, dealt with all intellectual-property matters and negotiated some key sponsorship deals including John Lewis’ sponsorship of the Olympic Games 2012 and the Commonwealth Games 2014. Amy was named a Rising Star in the Legal 500’s Powerlist 2013 and trained for 5 years at city law firm, Hogan Lovells.