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The Legal Director has welcomed Katie Sandys-Renton, Trudy Grey, Siobhan Almond, Nick Blackbourn and Natalia Samodina to its team.
The firm provides SMEs with highly experienced general counsel on a flexible basis.
Sandys-Renton joins from charity OneYMCA where she was legal director and set up the legal function. She has experience supporting businesses, charities and local governments in a broad range of legal work.
Grey has been GC for maritime-orientated design house and technical consulting firm BMT for the last eight years. She has expertise in corporate governance and company secretarial work, litigation/dispute resolution, risk management, corporate law, mergers & acquisitions/joint ventures and commercial law.
Almond joins from FTSE 100 company JD Sports Fashion plc where she was GC and company secretary, responsible for the global legal function of the group, overseeing general commercial work, regulatory compliance and M&A activity.
Client legal director Blackbourn has worked both in private practice and in-house for businesses including Guinness and Ranks Hovis McDougall. Since 2003, he has been self-employed, and for the last seven years has run his own niche law practice, acting as a trusted adviser for businesses looking for commercial advice.
Commercial lawyer Samodina joins from Levantor Capital Limited where she was head of legal. She has worked in the financial services and the natural resources sectors, both in-house and in private practice. She is skilled in investment banking law, corporate and commercial law and trade finance, with a particular emphasis on clients engaged in natural resources and commodities.
The Legal Director CEO Ed Simpson commented: 'We are seeing high demand from very skilled and experienced GCs to work in a different way, with more autonomy and flexibility. We’re very happy to welcome such a brilliant, diverse group of legal professionals to The Legal Director and continue our strong year of growth. Under the current economic climate, we are certainly seeing demand from SMEs for quality legal advice and Natalia, Nick, Siobhan, Trudy and Katie add valuable expertise to our offering.'
The Legal Director has a bench of almost 50 in-house lawyers.
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