Profile:

A pragmatic and solution-focussed lawyer with over six years' post qualification experience in the UK and Qatar. Based in Qatar for eight years, I am well versed in the challenges and possibilities in doing business in the region and am passionate about helping companies to structure their business well for both short term and long term growth, protecting their assets and streamlining their operations for increased effectiveness.

I am a well-rounded commercial/contracts lawyer with considerable experience and expertise in the Middle East airline sector, with a vast portfolio in providing legal support to the commercial and procurement divisions of the business, as well as looking after all contractual affairs for the airport and its subsidiaries. I have strong negotiation experience and excellent communication skills gained at an international level, in cross-functional, and cross-geographic teams.

Personal Information:

Marital status : Single

Nationality : British

Date of Birth : 14th April 1982

Driving License : Full / Clean (UK & Qatar)

Language : English

Location : UK

Educational & Qualifications:

Chartered Institute of Legal Executives. Admitted to practice as a Chartered Legal Executive Lawyer 2014 (Fellow of CILEX).

De Montfort University, De Montfort Law School, Leicester, UK (2008) - Legal Practice Masters

Core modules undertaken: Commercial and Intellectual Property Law; Commercial Property and Matrimonial Law; Litigation; Business and Company Law; and Property Law and Practical Legal Skills.

Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham, UK (2001 – 2005) - LLB Honours - (2.1 Degree).

Gateway Sixth Form College, Leicester, UK (1998-2001) - A-Levels - in Psychology, Sociology, Law.

Sir Jonathan North Community College, Leicester, UK (1993-1998) - 9 G.C.S.E’s

Other Qualification:

Computer Literate (Microsoft office XP i.e. Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint)

ERP (ORACLE)

Summary of Experience:

Airport Service Agreements: Negotiation and drafting of various airport services, marketing support, and ground handling agreements. I have extensive experience of negotiating airport services and related agreements and structuring these transactions in accordance with applicable regulations.

IP: Extensive experience in supervising and managing the Groups trademarks and other intellectual property rights/licenses, and successfully assisted in coordinating litigation re a trade mark dispute, providing direct advice to the business and liaising with external counsel, and managing pre-litigation in general IP matters.

Regulatory and Compliance: Assisted in drafting position papers and representing Qatar Airways position at various executive meetings on issues such as, denied boarding, cancellations and delay regulations, (providing compliance advice in this area in line with the Montreal Convention and EC regulations), airport charges, airport capacity, review of Slot Agreements with BA and Lufthansa, AirMaroc, in light of the airlines alliance.

Business Development (Corporate Affairs): Assisted in the Airlines investment and acquisition of 3 major Hotels (UK and Australia and Geneva) and handling its operations. This was a sizeable corporate project for Qatar Airways, and for several months I was dedicated solely to this Project. I negotiated the legal arrangements opposite the other sides legal team. I also undertook, a significant proportion of the drafting of the transaction documents required, including the sale agreements, technical operations agreements, trademark agreements, and operator agreements, secondment of staff agreements. Working on the efficient administration of post-acquisition integration of companies and execution of corporate documents.

Commercial: Assisted in reviewing and setting up Slot Exchange Agreements - BA, Air Maroc, Lufthansa.

Negotiation and Drafting Ancillary Revenue Marketing Agreements- Babble, Amazon, Points.com, Marriott Hotels, Habib Bank, Doha Bank, Goldman Sachs, American Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Siberia Airlines, Cathay Pacific.

Various other commercial agreements, including: Advertising and PR Agreements (CNN, Discovery Channel, Golin HK, TV Advertising Production Agreements (SKY News, BBC); Charity and Sponsorship Agreements (Union for International Cancer Control, Doha International Film Festival, Ooredoo (Wifi on board), Philippines International Football Club, FC Bayern Football Club, Brooklyn Nets.

Various advice on Qatar Airways Carriers Regulation and Condition of Carriage.

Various advice in relation to data protection and transfer issues.

Various advice work related to real estate and property issues, including drafting and reviewing Heads of Terms, Residential Lease Agreements, and Novations.

Operations: Negotiation of Engine Agreements, MTU and Pratt Whitney. Drafting and negotiating IFE Purchase Agreements, Thales and Panasonic. Various other commercial agreements, including: Training and Cabin Trainer agreements; Hotel Connections Agreements; Qatar Executive Block Hour Agreements.

IT: Experience in negotiation of the IT, software license agreements (TRAX, Aero Exchange, Google, SITA), IT/services agreements (local hosting & offshore) as required. Technology, projects, software, and contractual advice, including termination of contracts.

Finance: Merchant Services/ Card Acquirer Agreements – Citibank, American Express, Worldpay, Klarna, We chat, Barclays.

Pre Contract: Drafting and preparation of Tender Documents. Experience in bid preparation, reviewing quotations from suppliers and subcontractors, cost estimating, and bid price analysis, developing a evaluation criteria with the business. Have participated and prepared technical evaluation reports, commercial evaluation reports.

Contract Management: Writing, evaluating, negotiating and executing various contracts covering a range of transactions, creating and maintaining relationships with suppliers and customers, maintaining correspondence and documentation related to contracts, communicating and presenting information to stakeholders regarding contracts, monitoring contracts and moving forward with close-out, extension or renewal of contracts, and problem-solving on contract-related issues.

Risk Management & Negotiation: Arranged the Company’s insurance by negotiating terms with insurance broker. Successfully organized the renewal of the Company’s lease by corresponding with the Landlord’s agents and external counsel.

General: Assistance on transfer of business (including various novation’s/ assignments). Drafting and negotiation of various consultancy agreements, service agreements, confidentiality agreements, letter of intent, settlement and termination agreements, amendments to agreements, side letters, request for proposals, review of tenders, selection letter of potential service providers, termination notices.

Review and negotiation of various parent company grantees and drafting precedent parent company guarantee.

Drafting and implementing legal documentation such as license agreements for new business initiative and products. Drafting bespoke commercial agreements for the business.

Assisted with the creation of specific requirements of the business, and developed contract forms and templates.

Career History and Experience:

Qatar Airways – Senior Legal Specialist (Commercial & Corporate Transactions based in Doha, Qatar).

Reporting to Vice President Contracts

(Current role joined October 2011)

Key Accomplishments:

Drafting, and reviewing, a wide range of contracts with industry specific suppliers, and service providers, minimising liability and legal exposure.

Providing proactive legal assistance and advice on various contracts, disputes and regulatory matters across the business.

Exploiting commercial opportunities as they arise and working closely with Qatar Airways commercial project teams to provide them with contract interpretation/ implementation and legal support so that contracts entered into comply with applicable policies to secure and protect business interests.

Facilitating the development and maintenance of strategic procedures for the contracts department

Providing legal advice to business areas within Qatar Airways Head Office and out stations and representing key role players including section heads and senior personnel.

Experience working on various agreements i.e. software license, hardware purchasing, and ecommerce agreements, inter-company loan agreements, sponsorship agreements, Merchant Services/Card Acquirer Agreements.

Ability to carry out due diligence on contractual documents pre acquisition stage.

Advised in relation to disputes and drafting settlement terms.

Leading on compliance projects as they arise supporting by internal stakeholders.

Advising on a wide range of regulatory matters from airline management to ownership and control of carriers.

Providing legal support on national and international marketing campaigns.

Risk management and analysis of airport operations, communication and air service agreements.

Dealing with creation/ approval of schedules under Master Service Agreements with key service provider in the Finance function which includes Accounting and Treasury.

Advising on Intellectual Property Disputes.

Liaising with external lawyers on specific projects.

Maintaining and updating template contracts and Standard Terms & Conditions ensuring they meet the Company’s requirements and interests.

Deputising for VP Contracts.

Experian Ltd – Contracts Manager (based in the UK).

Reporting to Head of Legal & Global Sourcing

May 2010 –June 2011

Key Accomplishments:

Leading and managing the development and execution of contracting strategies for a broad range of direct and indirect procurement categories (professional consulting services, legal services, marketing services, data acquisition and IT).

Providing internal supports to all corporate and business units, in particular managing the contract work flow of the procurement department.

Owning and managing the contracts & IP database and procurement processes for key areas of responsibility.

Drafting, and reviewing a broad range of routine commercial contracts (e.g. sales agreement, service agreements, distribution agreements and confidentiality agreements) and utilizing legal and commercial acumen.

Coordinating & managing all correspondence with outside counsel.

Developing contract templates, tool kits as business needs etc.

Being the key interface with outside legal counsel, where specialist advice is required.

EADS - Astrium Services Ltd – Commercial Paralegal (based in the UK).

Reporting to Group Commercial Lawyer

April 2006 – April 2010

Key Accomplishments:

Offering advice and legal services to all offices within the EADS Group.

Advising across a range of commercial legal areas including licensing, IP and general contractual issues.

Negotiating, reviewing and drafting contracts pertaining to the facilitation of business for the EADS Group.

Ensure the commercial Integrity of any contracts or other legal documents to ensure contractual and legal issues are satisfactorily negotiated, concluded.

Contract management of all commercial agreements, terms and conditions.

Assist in the preparation of bids, proposals and quotations, for all areas of the company business, including the drafting, preparing and interpretation of a wide range of commercial contracts including preparing Confidentiality and License Agreements.

Maintaining standard terms and conditions issued with bid quotation, orders, and purchases. Including regular revisions based on specific requirements of the requesting business group.

Providing direct advice, liaising with external counsel, and other organizations regarding legal and compliance matters affecting all areas and aspects of business undertaken by the EADS Group (including both contentious and non-contentious issues).

Assisting in due diligence and investigative work including M&A, outsourcing, and litigation.

Delivering support services to the senior management team. To help ensure that the group is supported and kept up to date with recent developments in the legal field.

Looking into relevant statutes, undertaking legal research, updating relevant documentation.

Managing the company’s IP portfolio. Responsibilities include registering trademarks, domain names and monitoring progress.

Ensuring compliance of company legal notice in all promotional and marketing materials.

Proofreading documentation and completing Ad-hoc administration tasks.

Negotiating with insurance brokers as the main point of contact for insurance related queries.

Being fully cognisant with the Company Quality Policy.

Acting in accordance with the Rules on professional conduct and ethical standards set by the Law Society.

Core competencies and key skills:

Excellent legal acumen.

Excellent drafting skills, including attention to detail and talent for accuracy and precision.

Ability to lead a negotiation independently, and carry out management of commercial/ corporate business counterparts and/or end users in a management role.

Excellent understanding of contracts, contract governance and contract language and life cycle.

Ability to work with minimal supervision using own initiative and plan and organize own workload. Excellent planning and time keeping skills to meet strict deadlines.

Ability to research, interpret and provide advice on complex/critical issues and understand legal/financial implications, and provide solutions.

Ability to negotiate successfully and influence at all levels of the business.

Discretion and ability to maintain confidentiality.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to construct a coherent argument.

Ability to research in depth both legal/operational issues, and solve the issues in a pressurized time sensitive environment.

Excellent interpersonal relationship skills, and commercial acumen, with the ability to develop and maintain strategic relationships both internally and externally and act as an ambassador for the business with key contacts.

Ability to function under pressure and work on various projects simultaneously

Ability to multi task on several issues in parallel to each other.

Successfully managing internal clients and stakeholders, and external clients.

Contract Management – Drafting and preparation of tender documents from start to finish. Coordinate, and consolidate comments from all role players and facilitate signature process.

Interests & Activities:

Enjoy travelling, yoga, gym, reading and socialising with friends.

Experimenting different cuisine and travelling.

Contact this candidate