Rebecca

In my role as Senior In-House Legal Advisor, I work within an in-house legal team of 9, and advise all the group businesses across the legal, medical and motor companies on a wide variety of commercial, contract, litigation, insurance, property and employment issues including:-

• Commercial contracts: drafting, reviewing and negotiating a range of contracts including referral contracts from law firms, case management companies and third parties, which involved advice on data transfer and LASPO (Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012) issues; charity partnership agreements; sponsorship agreements, including liaising with the media and marketing departments on IP and reputational issues; supplier contracts; termination letters; advising on the risks of standard terms and conditions; consent forms; and consultancy agreements.
• Group Projects: coordinating, drafting and negotiating a suite of documents for a new work stream, including drafting referral agreements with claims management companies, litigation funding agreements, insurance membership agreements and policy schedules, engagement documents including retainer letters with accompanying CFAs and DBAs, liaising with IT on data protection issues for new document platforms, and advising the relevant stakeholders on the risks to the business.
• Litigation: providing strategic advice on a £630m fraud claim (as claimant) including negotiating with Administrators, managing external counsel, and advising on internal data reviews. I have also advised upon negligence claims against the firm relating to engagement documents, funding and insurance issues, as well as liaising with counsel on costs assessments. In addition, I would review all new claims issued against the group companies to send to the appropriate stakeholders , assess the risk and financial impact on the group, and continue to monitor their progress or settlement.
• Insurance advice: I was the main point of contact for the insurance team advising on new policies and contracts as well as historic disputes, including premium claims. I also drafted settlement agreements and policy amendments, and provided regulatory advice liaising with the compliance team.
• Property: advising the facilities team in relation to disputes with landlords in the group property portfolio, including advice on inherent defects and repairing obligations which involved reviews of leases and historic documents, as well as experts reports. I also assisted in relation to dilapidations disputes, break notices, vacant possession and serviced charge issues,
• HR/Employment: advising HR on breaches of employee restrictive covenants and drafting cease and desist letters; negotiating undertakings; and advising on cases of potential defamation on social media platforms.
• Developing a clear litigation strategy to ensure consistency of approach across the group, including an assessment matrix based upon the claim value, projections and success criteria, to ensure claims were referred to the appropriate level of authority, and taking into account the group’s appetite for risk.
• Developing a central litigation tracker document to record claim values, group exposure, prospects of success, current status and CCJs.
• Advising on the proposed reorganisation of the group structure, including striking-off dormant companies and liaising with the tax department.
• Reviewing and drafting standard terms for all the group websites, including terms and conditions of use, privacy policies and cookie policies.
• Drafting precedent contracts and a variety of documents for an internal database.
• Advising on regulatory and data protection issues, including data protection clauses in contracts and data protection impact assessments.

My practice focused primarily on UK and international finance and insurance litigation in Squire Patton Boggs’ London office, including:

• Financial Services Litigation advising banks and other financial institutions on all aspects of finance and banking litigation including commencing and managing High Court claims on a regular basis, summary judgment actions, set aside applications, and appeals; conducting mediation and settlement meetings; disclosure reviews for an international bank in relation to sanctions; advising an international money lender defending a claim for procurement of breach of contract; and conducting and supervising teams carrying out large-scale e-disclosure reviews.
• Insurance Litigation including working with the UK branch of a major French based insurer on all their major litigation matters, in particular, advising on the merits of their defence to a £13m claim by an insured party, which included defending proceedings, an extensive disclosure exercise, preparing witness statements, experts’ reports, and achieving a very satisfactory result through mediation. I also regularly carried out detailed claims analyses for fraudulent breaches of insurance policies, as well as merits advice and claims assessments.
• International Arbitration acting for insurance clients in relation to ICC and LCIA arbitrations against international respondents, obtaining awards and enforcement.
• Public Procurement and Judicial Review advising a large private defence company in respect of a public procurement challenge against a government body, including commencing proceedings, disclosure applications and mediation.
• Fraud investigations involving civil fraud actions against financial institutions, including conducting a reconciliation review for a large Irish bank of a customers’ ledger in a multi-million-pound fraud; conducting proceedings on behalf of a large bank for client fraud under a lending facility; and advising a Sheik in respect of several multi-million-pound claims and injunctions brought by creditors.
• Restrictive Covenant actions and employment litigation representing patent attorneys in defending an injunction action for breach of restrictive covenants. I have also advised companies upon injunction actions by former employees, and claims by recruitment agencies.
• Property Litigation advising on surrendering leases and preparing a successful summary judgment in a Part 20 claim for a vesting order,

Upon qualification, I joined the Commercial Property team in London and acted for major corporate landlords, supermarkets and pension funds advising on leases and tenancy agreements, licences, drafting reports on title, surrendering leases, managing rent reviews and dilapidations.

At Hammonds LLP (now Squire Patton Boggs (UK) LLP) there was a six-seat training contract, with four months spent in each of the six chosen teams. I worked for one seat in each of the Corporate, Pensions, Employment, Property, and Property Litigation teams, as well as in the general corporate and commercial team in the Hong Kong from December 2006-May 2007.