I am an approachable lawyer who takes a practical commercial approach when advising my client on their legal position and options. I am an efficient and accurate drafter of commercial contracts. I concentrate on cementing relationships with my clients so they feel at ease to pick up the phone to me as part of their in house support.

I have over 10 years’ experience drafting and advising on a wide range of commercial contracts. My areas of expertise include:

• franchise agreements;
• terms and conditions for the sale of goods and services– b2b and b2c;
• e-commerce – selling goods and services online;
• website terms and conditions of use and privacy policies;
• data protection issues;
• confidentiality agreements;
• agency and distribution agreements;
• sub-contracting;
• manufacturing agreements;
• IT agreements;
• sponsorship agreements; and
• consumer protection.

Other areas of work I specialise in are:

Franchising

I advise franchisors and franchisees on their franchise agreements and other associated documentation.  I have drafted many franchise agreements in a range of business sectors and am on the panel of recommended lawyers for a major high street chain of hairdressers and a domiciliary care franchise for my franchisee work.  

I offer a cost effective, fixed fee report service for prospective franchisees ensuring they fully understand the implications of what they are signing up to.

Recruitment

Recruitment is also an area in which I have particular expertise and I have assisted many of my recruitment sector clients with their terms of trading, preferred supplier agreements and other contractual requirements.  I spent a couple of months seconded to a large international recruitment agency providing support to their internal legal team. During this time, I reviewed numerous client contracts for the business for the supply of permanent and temporary staff.  I am therefore well placed to advise clients in the recruitment sector.

Training

I am also able to provide contract law training in-house or online.

Paris Smith are Affiliate members of the British Franchise Association (bfa) and I am the nominated contact. The bfa is the only voluntary self-regulatory body for the UK franchise industry, with a standards based approach to membership. Its aim is to promote ethical franchising practice in the UK and help the industry develop credibility, influence and favourable circumstance for growth.

I am also a member of Encouraging Women into Franchising.