Commercial contract law conference 2019

Alastair has been a leading figure in company law for over 20 years. In that time he has gained experience over a wide variety of transactions. His mainstream practice covers the formation of corporate entities, establishing project and joint venture vehicles, drafting bespoke high value commercial contracts and the provision of general contract and commercial advice. Alastair also deals with high value and complex commercial disputes. He is recognised as a “Recommended Lawyer” for Corporate and Commercial: Edinburgh & Glasgow; and also for Insolvency and Corporate Recovery by the Legal 500 directory.

Alastair advises on all aspects of company law, contract law as well as public sector, third sector and project work.  He “gets the job done effectively in a no-nonsense and client friendly manner” (Pauline Graham, Social Firms Scotland).

Recent deals include: Sales in the car home sector, purchase of a water company, sale of a waste management company. Insolvency advice for directors and opinion work for just and equitable winding up.

Alastair acts for a number of the firm’s well-established clients including national and international organisations, owner-managed companies, entrepreneurs, funders, shareholder groups and investors.  He also has experience in project work with the public sector.  This has involved devising styles, systems and protocols which led to acknowledged added value which included real time updates on active projects being available.

External Appointments

By invitation Alastair devised and wrote a new course on commercial contracts for the Diploma in Legal Practice at Glasgow University where he continues to manage the course in his capacity as senior tutor. Alastair also mentors law students in the University’s CLASP Programme where advice is provided to start-up businesses.

Adviser to, and Director of, EB Scotland Limited (which spends landfill tax credit money in respect of environmentally enhancing activities throughout Scotland). Alastair’s role involves appraising projects that improve the amenity or environment of areas in Scotland and making sure that the projects qualify under legislation. He has presented a number of seminars both to the business community and to fellow lawyers.

Peter is a senior associate in Shepherd and Wedderburn’s banking and finance team. He specialises in advising banks and institutions on financial services regulation. He has extensive experience of drafting documentation for mortgage lending, consumer credit and retail banking products and advising on regulatory risk issues. He also advises on fiduciary services, payment systems and clearing arrangements and provides legal opinions to institutions for regulatory capital purposes. Peter’s practice includes acting for financial institutions and corporations on syndicated lending and cross-border structured finance transactions, as well as advising on Islamic finance deals and lending to investment funds.

Fiona is a managing practice development lawyer in Dentons' dispute resolution team.  She has 15 years experience as a commercial litigation lawyer, the last 3 of which have been spent in a practice development role with a focus on knowledge management, innovation and training.

Fiona has a particular interest in contract law, and sits on the Law Society of Scotland's Obligations Sub-Committee.

Jamie is an award-winning lawyer. He specialises in banking, complex contractual, financial and insolvency disputes.

Jamie provides advice to a range of clients from multi-million pound private equity funds to small family businesses. His cases regularly contribute to the developing case law in his areas of practice and in recognition of this he is routinely invited to speak at legal conferences throughout Scotland.

Exceptionally for a litigator, Jamie’s expert knowledge of the Scottish court system and financial agreements has also led him to be instructed in a number of uncontentious matters drafting financial services agreements for private equity funds and insolvency practitioner firms.

Jamie is described as having “outstanding” technical ability and as an embodiment of the Firm’s entrepreneurial tagline. He will always look at the bigger picture, and he makes things happen. Above all, he is focused on achieving the very best possible outcome and “doing the right thing” for the client. Other lawyers describe him as simply “brilliant”.

Steph is a Senior Legal Manager at Aggreko plc, supporting all aspects of the Northern Europe region and also the Aggreko group’s Global Procurement function. This broad remit includes responsibility for supporting the Group’s IT function. She has extensive experience in commercial contracts, intellectual property, information technology and data protection, formerly as a Senior Associate in the non-contentious TMT team at Dentons. Steph tutors in Commercial Contracts on the University of Glasgow Diploma in Legal Practice, and also recently passed the New York Bar Exam.

Alison heads up Shepherd and Wedderburn's Trade and Commerce team, assisting clients in all sectors with their on-going business and trading requirements, both locally and internationally. Alison specialises in advising on all aspects of commercial contracts, including drafting tailored commercial agreements, outsourcing agreements, services agreements, IT agreements, manufacturing, logistics and supply chain agreements and entry in to new markets, particularly export and import controls and sanctions.
 
Alison is qualified in Scotland, Ireland and England and Wales.

Gillian is a commercial litigator specialising in complex, high value commercial contract disputes. Her experience encompasses actions in the Sheriff Court, Court of Session, cross-border and international litigations, as well as alternative dispute resolution procedures. Her clients range from private individuals to multinational plcs and government bodies. Gillian is versatile, resourceful and solutions driven, with a track record of securing positive outcomes in extremely challenging cases. She is frequently enlisted as a troubleshooter when potential problems are identified with a view to devising innovative, contractually compliant and constructive options to resolve.

Gillian joined Anderson Strathern in 2016 following a ten year career break from private practice and rapidly progressed to partner in 2018. She was a part-time civil litigation tutor on the Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of Strathclyde Law School from 2014-2019 and is a contributing author to Lexis Nexis.

Jane is a disputes lawyer with international law firm CMS. She specialises in the resolution of infrastructure, construction and energy disputes in the UK and internationally. She is highly experienced at representing parties in mediations and has been a meditator and regular practitioner herself since 2012. She is accredited as a Specialist in Commercial Mediation by the Law Society of Scotland.

Dr Kirsty J Hood QC is an Advocate at the Scots Bar. She called to the Bar in 2001, and took silk in 2015.  Whilst she maintains a varied civil practice, her particular expertise is in private international law. Kirsty is the author of Conflict of Laws within the UK; author of ‘'International' Rules in an Internal Setting’ in Ruiz Abou-Nigm, McCall-Smith & French (eds), Linkages and Boundaries in Private and Public International Law; was a contributor to Wilkinson & Norrie, The Law Relating to Parent and Child in Scotland (3rd edn); provided the material for the LexisPSL Dispute Resolution Practice Note on 'Jurisdiction in Scotland - Overview'; and is the contributor of the ‘Cross-border Jurisdiction’ section of the Scottish Family Law Service looseleaf. Kirsty was Clerk of Faculty at the Faculty of Advocates between October 2014 and April 2019 – the first woman to hold that post.