Practical LawConferences

Babette heads up the firm’s Global Franchise Group. She advises retail and restaurant companies on their international expansion into new markets.

She specialises in global franchise, distribution, agency, wholesale and concession agreements and IP-driven joint ventures. She also advises retail clients on the strategic use of licensing strategies in emerging markets using both traditional and innovative structures for international expansion in the global marketplace.

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.

Her clients include Abercrombie & Fitch, Godiva, Wagamama and LEGO.

With experience in private practice, UK and EU antitrust enforcement and in-house, Edward advises Sainsbury’s on all commercial and competition law matters.  He currently enjoys managing a large in-house team of commercial and competition lawyers.  His recent workload includes building on the victory against MasterCard in the CAT in relation to the interchange fee litigation, now heading to the Court of Appeal and leading Sainsbury’s first trial franchise agreement. He is also responsible for competition law compliance across the Sainsbury’s group (including Argos and Habitat) and engagement with competition regulators.

Sarah Aziz is Deputy General Counsel for L’Oréal UK & ROI. As a generalist, this involves advising various business units across a range of legal practice areas such as dispute resolution, IP and sponsorship, commercial contracts, competition, advertising and marketing, e-commerce and IT, digital and privacy. Sarah has been at L’Oréal for 9.5 years, prior to which she was an associate in the Corporate department at Clifford Chance LLP.

Marie Bernard is Europe Director of Innovation at Dentons and Strategic Advisor to Nextlaw Labs, its Investment and Acceleration subsidiary dedicated to the legal vertical. Marie supports the development and acceleration of innovative solutions. She stands for no-nonsense, customer-centric innovation. In 2017 Marie was recognized in the Fastcase 50 as one of the world’s leading innovators in law.

Dr Miranda Brawn has a background as an investment banker and barrister. Miranda is a senior business, legal and diversity executive. Outside of her day job, she is the Founder and CEO of The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation which has won an award from the UK Prime Minister Theresa May MP for making history by launching the first race diversity lecture aimed at schoolchildren. Miranda has been named as one of the UK’s leading diversity champions where recent press has called Miranda the go-to person for race diversity in the City of London. Miranda focuses on all forms of diversity and equality especially race and gender across all sectors in the UK workforce.

A multi-award winning legal, business and diversity leader who is hailed as a trailblazer and honoured numerous times domestically and internationally for her achievements. A regular business and diversity expert on television and radio while being quoted in the national press. Her television work includes regular appearances on BBC Breakfast, ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Sky News and London Live. Miranda is also a guest lecturer for various organisations including higher education establishments and writes regularly for national newspapers on social policy, cultural and equality issues.

Miranda has regularly been named as one of the most influential persons in the UK by various annual “Powerlists” including Top 100 BAME business executive leaders Powerlist (Financial Times), Top 100 Women in European Finance (Financial News) and UK’s Top 10 inspiring females changing Britain (Metro) to name but a few.  Miranda’s work has also been personally praised by HRH The Prince Charles of Wales, Mayor of London, Mayor of Brighton, Mayor of Cambridge and the UK Prime Minister. Miranda received a Doctor of Letters in 2017 for her contribution and services to business, financial services, law, diversity and the next generation across the Globe.  With a refreshing and diverse background, Miranda is also an advisor and patron to a number of companies, charities, individuals and governments. She has spoken across the globe including Parliament, University of Cambridge and University of Oxford.

Emma joined Dentons’ Real Estate practice in 2016 as a professional support lawyer having previously practiced as a commercial property partner. She is responsible for all aspects of real estate knowledge management including training (both internal and external), research, creation of knowhow material (including articles, client briefings and legal updates) and thought leadership. A particular focus of Emma’s role is the management of knowhow as a means of providing a value-added service for clients dealing with real estate.

Anna specializes in all aspects of intellectual property law, both contentious and non-contentious. She advises clients on the protection and exploitation of their valuable intellectual property portfolios, in a wide range of different industries and sectors. Her contentious IP work often includes providing clients with strategic advice to resolve disputes at an early stage, but she has also represented clients in many intellectual property infringement court actions and other proceedings (including at all levels of the English courts and at various domain name dispute resolution forums). She also regularly advises on defamation disputes. Her non-contentious IP work includes advising on the assigning, licensing and securitization of different intellectual property rights in a wide range of different commercial arrangements (including brand licensing, sponsorship, outsourcing, software supply, R&D projects, large-scale corporate due diligence and audit projects, and distribution and manufacturing agreements).

Alex is a Partner in the Real Estate team in London.  He has over 15 years’ experience of advising on a wide range of real estate matters including leasing, asset management and investment transactions and in particular in the retail and restaurant space.  He has acted for a number of occupiers including The Restaurant Group, House of Fraser, JD Wetherspoon, Boisdale, The Arts Club, National Tyres, Mintel and LokNStore and has also worked on a number of retail workouts including Peacocks, Jane Norman, Ponden Mill, Rosebys, Robertson Electrical and BB’s Coffee and Muffins.  Alex and his team also manage 11 shopping centres across the UK for institutional fund landlord clients, so is in tune to both retail landlords’ and retail occupiers’ requirements and where these compete and where these align!

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 750 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.

Mark Dunhill joined Whittard of Chelsea in January 2014 as C.E.O. with the objective of transforming the company from a UK high street retailer to a global aspirational brand.

Prior to Whittard, Mark worked for T.M. Lewin as International Director from early 2011.

Before that role, Mark held the position of CEO of Fabergé, where he led the multi-national team to restore the famous name to its former position as one of the most desirable jewellers in the world.

Previously Mark worked for Alfred Dunhill Ltd for twelve years where he undertook a variety of roles, including Product Manager, General Manager responsible for the company’s operations in a succession of markets in the Asia Pacific region, Managing Director, UK, and President of the Japan subsidiary; he returned to London in 2006 as company President.

An Oxford graduate, Mark worked for BP for the first 8 years of his career, most of which was spent in France. While in France, he also found time to pursue entrepreneurial projects including setting up a restaurant as well as a fast automotive servicing business in Toulouse.

Mark is married with four children and now lives in the countryside to the South of London.

Nick Graham is the Global Co-Chair of Dentons’ Privacy and Cybersecurity Group. He specialises in data privacy, cybersecurity, information governance, as well as freedom of information. Nick advises across all sectors including retail, telecoms, energy, manufacturing, banking, insurance, transport, technology and digital media.

Nick has over 20 years’ experience and has been advising on data privacy since the days of the Data Protection Act 1984 and the early enforcement activities of the FTC. He has advised on all aspects of data privacy including global compliance strategy, privacy impact  assessments, data breach and incident response, international data transfers, customer data strategy, data retention and data exploitation. Most recently, he has advised on Big Data, cloud computing, cyber attacks, consumer tracking, biometrics, data sovereignty, conflicts of data laws, compliance with the new General Data Protection Regulation and transfers in light of the Safe Harbor invalidity ruling.

After studying English at University, Nick qualified as a Barrister and practiced in criminal defence from Francis Taylor Buildings for three years. He then moved in-house to Sainsbury’s, starting out as a Commercial Lawyer. He is now Director of Group Legal Services, leading a team of 28 in-house lawyers and assistants providing a full service to the three group operating companies: Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Sainsbury’s Argos and Sainsbury’s Bank. His practice covers the entirety of Sainsbury’s operations with an emphasis upon corporate transactions, commercial contracting and reputation management. He led the legal team in Sainsbury’s recent acquisition of Home Retail Group plc and has previously advised on the sale of Sainsbury’s in-store pharmacy business and the purchase of Lloyds Banking Group’s 50% share in Sainsbury’s Bank. In the 2015 General Election Nick stood as a Parliamentary Candidate in Twickenham.

Elaine worked for Clifford Chance in London & Rome before beginning her in house career at Channel 4, where she spent 5 years specialising in Corporate & Regulatory work.  She then joined the world’s largest TV production company, FremantleMedia, as VP of Legal & Business Affairs of worldwide licensing before becoming Head of Legal for Apple’s Retail business in EMEA.  After 3 busy years at Apple where she focused on Apple’s European expansion & launch of the iPhone and iPad, Elaine was SVP of International Legal for Paramount Pictures before joining Shiseido as European General Counsel for the Dolce & Gabbana, NARS, Laura Mercier & bareMinerals cosmetics brands.  Elaine has a postgraduate degree in EU Competition law and is fluent in German, French & Italian.

On a personal note, Elaine is passionate about women in the Law & also acts as a mentor, working with the College of Law, Sutton Trust & Social Mobility Foundation which aim to encourage students from non traditional backgrounds to enter the Law & is a Governor of Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Trust.

Adrian is Head of Dentons’ Competition practice in London. He has over 30 years’ experience of advising on a wide range of UK and EU competition law issues, including UK and EU merger control, cartel investigations, market investigations, abuse of dominance, commercial agreements and conduct, competition-related litigation and disputes, compliance training and counselling and public procurement.  Retail clients Adrian has advised on competition law issues include Tesco, Sports Direct, Welcome Break and John Lewis

Alistair is a freelance Legal Engineer and practising solicitor who specialises in using technology to solve legal problems. Until last year Alistair was Head of Contracts and Data Protection Officer for Asda.

Alistair is also the founder of SYKE. SYKE is a legal automation and data privacy consultancy. SYKE helps businesses and law firms to use Contracts Express, Docusign and other technologies to solve legal problems. These technologies have now reached a level of sophistication where they can be a game changer for lawyers overwhelmed by the demand for pace and cost-efficiency.

SYKE also helps businesses to prepare for the new General Data Protection Regulation which is set to land in Spring 2018. Many businesses are struggling to recruit suitably qualified data protection officers so we are offering a data protection officer on demand service to help fill the gap.

Esther is a lawyer specialising in all types of construction dispute resolution. Along with her work in the construction sector, Esther is passionate about diversity and promoting cultural change both at Dentons and within the community more generally. She is co-Chair of Dentons’ UK LGBT network, GLOW, which promotes understanding of LGBT issues and provides support and mentoring opportunities to LGBT staff. Esther sits on the firm’s global LGBT committee and also helped set up an intercompany LGBT network in Milton Keynes. She is also a founding committee member of the Law Society’s LGBT division, which supports its members across the UK.

Leng Montgomery, is an LGBT inclusion and Trans* specialist from the UK engaging and consulting with the private and public sector. He’s currently working at Sainsbury’s as a D&I Executive.  He’s previously worked for  Stonewall, where he worked mostly on the Workplace Equality Index and assisted with the Trans Inclusion Guides being released in 2016.  He also speaks regularly and advises the media about Trans* issues. Leng has been listed on the World Pride Power List 2015 for his diversity and inclusion work and has also been listed on The Independent Rainbow lists ‘The Ones To Watch’ for 2014 and 2015. He lives in London and was also the first openly Trans* contestant on MasterChef 2014.

I joined Hertz Europe in September 1996.

Following my education up to High School in South Africa, I completed my University and professional education in London.  I am a Barrister and a Member of Gray’s Inn.  After my Masters in Law, from the University of London, I commenced working as a lawyer within the legal team in finance at Sun Life in 1978, and later joined BT in 1987, following which I joined Hertz in 1996.

Sue is a Project Director working in Anti-trust in the Competition and Markets Authority.  She is currently directing a Competition Act enforcement case in the pharmaceutical sector. Sue joined the Office of Fair Trading in 1999 as an Economic Advisor, having spent two years as an Assistant Economist at the Department of Trade and Industry. She became an Assistant Director in 2005 and subsequently spent four years on secondment to the National School of Government as a Senior Economics Lecturer.  In her time at the CMA, she has directed a number of anti-trust cases involving resale price maintenance in the retail sector, including cases in Bathroom Fittings and Lighting. She directed projects across a range of sectors in OFT, many with a focus on retailing, such as market studies in Domestic Electrical Goods, Extended Warranties and School Uniforms.

Gillian spent 10 years in private practice, for the majority of that time at Dentons.  She specialised in Landlord and Tenant, mainly in the retail sector, acting for companies such as Sainsbury’s, Westfield, Barclays, and Virgin Active.  She is now Group Legal Counsel at European Tyre Enterprise Limited (“ETEL”)and amongst other things is responsible for all property matters, which includes the substantial retail portfolio of ETEL’s subsidiary, Kwik-Fit.

Laura is a Senior Legal Advisor at Royal Mail Group.  She is part of the Strategic Transactions team within Group Legal, advising the business in relation to strategic technology and telecommunications contracts and technology projects and initiatives and related matters, such as data protection and intellectual property.  Laura was previously an Associate at DAC Beachcroft and has a background in Corporate and Commercial matters.

Katie currently leads the legal team supporting brand innovation and product development for RB. She has been working in the consumer goods sector for 5 years, previously working in private practice at Norton Rose LLP and Addleshaw Goddard LLP in Europe and the Middle East.

Georgina has been Head of Legal at John Lewis since 2015, and heads up the team responsible for delivering commercial advice to the department store. This covers a wide range of topics including GFR and GNFR contracts (with a recent focus on alternative structures such as joint ventures), competition issues, brand protection (including the annual Christmas advert) and IP infringement claims. A litigator by training, Georgina moved in-house to a commercial role at Dixons Retail in 2010 and on to the John Lewis Partnership in 2013. As a member of the Legal leadership team within the Partnership, Georgina is also responsible for designing and implementing a new operating model within the Legal department, involving the use of technology solutions, self-service processes and alternative legal services providers.

Scott is the Head of Dentons’ Corporate and Commercial Division. Scott specialises in commercial contracts, IT and data privacy law and is directory-ranked in all of these areas.  Scott is particularly well known for his work in the retail sector, where he advises a number of the UK’s best known names on the high street.

Scott is ranked in Chambers 2017 as a leading practitioner for commercial contracts, which recognises he “has considerable experience across a range of commercial matters. He has a reputation for handling strategically significant large-scale agreements for market-leading and brand-name clients”. Scott has acted for many household names on large-scale commercial deals involving supply of goods and services, joint ventures, distribution agreements, transportation, logistics, marketing agreements, design and manufacturing agreements and consultancy agreements.

Scott is a member of Dentons’ Band 1-ranked IT and Telecoms team and is an expert in IT, outsourcing, payments transactions, software law and the exploitation of databases. He was previously a computer programmer and draws on this background alongside 20 years’ experience advising in this field to enable him to share with his clients not just technical expertise, but also insight into what is contractually achievable in the market.  Scott focuses especially closely on deals involving payments, cloud services, Software as a Service (SaaS), agile development and deals with major technology vendors and has a keen understanding of current market positions. Scott is also very experienced at deals for major projects and IT outsourcings.

Scott is an expert in data privacy law and is one of the partners in Dentons’ Band 1-ranked team.  He has advised numerous data controllers and data subjects on all aspects of data privacy, including GDPR compliance, data breach, cyber risk, global data transfers, customer data and consents, data sharing, sale and purchase of databases, subject access rights, employee monitoring and data protection policies. Scott is recognised in directories “for his focus on practical solutions” (Legal 500 2017).

Bryn Thomas is  GC for Special Projects and Business Development at Colgate-Palmolive, having previously been Colgate’s GC for Europe with oversight of its European legal team. Bryn has had a huge amount of legal and management experience, having worked previously at GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen and Gillette. He is an experienced compliance investigator.

Neil is Chief Counsel for the UK and Ireland business of Dixons Carphone plc. This covers the CurrysPCWorld and Carphone Warehouse retails chains and their online presence, as well as Dixons Travel, PCWorld Business and the iD MVNO. He joined Dixons in January 2013 prior to the merger with Carphone Warehouse, and before that was a partner in the Technology Law department of fieldfisher.

Laura is group company secretary and general counsel at New Look with responsibility for the global legal function (including group data protection officer). Laura’s role includes supporting the board and senior management to provide innovative solutions, working with stakeholders across the business to navigate complex situations, providing commercial legal advice.

Before taking on her role at New Look Laura held positions at Slaughter & May,  Addleshaw Goddard and KPMG as both a corporate lawyer and professional support lawyer.

Nick is an experienced member of Debenhams in-house legal team specialising in commercial contracts, intellectual property and data protection matters. Nick’s work has an increasing International focus as Debenhams continues to grow overseas through a number of different operating models.

Prior to joining Debenhams, Nick spent time as the sole legal counsel of Burton’s Biscuits, one of the UK’s largest biscuit manufacturers whose leading brands are Maryland Cookies and Jammie Dodgers.

Nick trained with global law firm Dentons and qualified into their Technology Media and Telecoms team. Nick has considerable retail experience having undertaken secondments, whilst at Dentons, with Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd and the John Lewis Partnership (Waitrose).