Nathalie

I worked in a small legal team (4) alongside the wider risk and compliance teams (18) advising on commercial contracts, intellectual property, data protection, regulatory, litigation and corporate governance. I also co-founded and effectively led the first company diversity & inclusion council where I implemented initiatives and changes to policies and processes.

Intellectual Property

• Working collaboratively with the Brand and Strategy Director on the management of the brand portfolio.
• Advising on intellectual property contentious matters, drafting and reviewing IP licenses and contracts.
• Preparing and agreeing with relevant stakeholders’ policies and procedures in connection with the brand portfolio.
• Advising on and assisting with marketing campaigns and internal and external communications.

Commercial

• Experience in drafting, negotiating and advising on a wide range of commercial contracts, confidentiality agreements, corporate guarantees, with global third party suppliers, IT suppliers and on other commercial projects, providing advice on legal and commercial risks, potential impact and proposing mitigating actions.
• Assisted in the successful implementation of the contract risk framework including the preparation and delivery of staff training and guidance notes, making these available online for staff and participating in ongoing monthly committee meetings.
• Advising Sales, IT, Procurement, Risk and Marketing teams in connection with the negotiation of commercial contracts, legal queries and issues.
• Identification and escalation of legal and commercial issues in a timely manner.

Data Protection

• Legal representative for data privacy queries and projects following the implementation of the GDPR, participating and developing processes as a result of legislative changes.
• Effectively work alongside the DPO in the ongoing preparation of training on GDPR, subject access requests, drafting and updating relevant policies and reviewing and drafting internal and external communications.
• Successfully reviewed, drafted and negotiated GDPR amendment agreements for circa 200+ suppliers including implementing standard contractual clauses for suppliers based outside the EEA including the US.
• Provide effective in-house legal advice on data privacy issues including but not limited to; marketing permissions, campaigns for specific financial products, data-sharing, transfer of data outside the EU and advising on new products and initiatives.

Regulatory

• Provide client focused regulatory advice on consumer credit related queries and the launch of any new credit-related products in the UK and Ireland.
• Responsible for ensuring that appropriate policies and procedures are maintained and well documented.
• Analyse changes to regulatory requirements and developments such as the Breathing Space Regulations advising on the impact with suggested changes alongside Credit Risk and Recoveries teams.

Corporate Governance & Company Secretarial

• Respond to audit and due diligence requests from auditors and periodic refinancing exercises collating detailed information relating to policies, procedures and board packs.
• Advise directors and senior management on their powers, responsibilities and obligations.
• Responsible for drafting legal reports within specified timeframes including tracking and reporting on actions and key legal matters and risks.
• Responsible for maintaining accurate group statutory books and company filings.
• Experience in drafting board minutes in connection with director appointments and terminations, statutory accounts and resolutions passed by the board.

Litigation

• Effectively assisted on a £2 million cyber insurance litigation claim working collaboratively with Senior Legal Counsel in the preparation of supporting evidence, drafted correspondence to defendant insurers, case summaries, chronology of the claim, participated in without prejudice meeting, prepared instructions and court documentation in accordance with the pre-action protocol.
• Gathered evidence and witnesses in support of litigation claims and developed case strategies with Senior Legal Counsel. Issued court proceedings for small claims and advised on alternative dispute resolution with suppliers in respect of intellectual property infringement, breach of contract and insurance claims.

Other responsibilities

• Member of the workplace Diversity & Inclusivity Council where I participate in roundtable discussions and implement new initiatives to improve diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.
• Develop and implement new systems, processes, policies and tools to enable more effective legal risk management.
• Provide legal advice to the UK and Ireland office in a pragmatic, problem solving and commercial approach.
• Support, coordinate and liaise with insurance brokers and key stakeholders on the renewal of the group insurances.
• Undertake in-depth legal research and attend seminars to develop technical knowledge.
• Manage external legal spend liaising with external legal counsel where necessary.
• Track and monitor legal developments and report to the risk committee advising on the impact and potential changes that should be made.
• Maintain legal team precedent bank on an ongoing basis.

In-house paralegal supporting a small team of lawyers (6) in commercial contracts, company secretarial, and data protection.

Supported a small in-house legal team (team of 3) on a wide range of matters including litigation relating to aviation finance for clients based in the U.S, Canada and Europe, U.S and Russia, reviewing and drafting commercial contracts, NDA’s, GDPR amendments, and supporting the team on strategic projects.

Prepared and negotiated a variety of legal and commercial issues including commercial contracts, NDAs and associated documentation.

A fixed term contract as a paralegal in the corporate and commercial department of a medium sized law firm. I assisted a large (6 partners, 4 associates & 15 support staff) corporate and commercial department on M&A for large, capital markets, banking and commercial work undertaking fee-earning work and time recording. Work consisted of assisting in the delivery of advice, drafting training material and assisting in the delivery of webinars, drafting shareholder agreements, carrying out verification exercises, due diligence and compiling post-completion bibles.

A fixed-term contract as an in-house paralegal for an investment platform. I supported a medium sized (team of 15) in-house legal and compliance department relating to the group companies, investor queries, FATCA certifications, worked independently and collaboratively on data protection matters and private client matters relating to deceased portfolios.

After graduating from university and completing the LPC I worked for a large consumer credit firm in their loan administration department dealing with customer queries, complaints and managing the life cycle of a customer's loan.

This experience really helped me understand the ways that a consumer credit firm operates and was instrumental in shaping my legal career at Premium Credit as a paralegal, trainee and NQ lawyer.