Legal Hobbit's aim is to
provide their clients with high quality and experienced legal support, at competitive rates, commensurate with the cost to their client's business
of employing a high quality project lawyer but with the benefits and reassurance to their clients of an external law firm regulated by the Law Society.
Further, since Legal Hobbit works for multiple clients, we will cap our charges to the amount which a project lawyer would charge for a full time fixed
term contract but will only charge for the time we spend on your work. This can result in a substantial saving for clients because typically a highly
experienced lawyer will spend less time than a less experienced temporary lawyer to do the same work Finally, because our legal resources are all used
to working as part of an extended in-house team, we are skilled at building relationships with clients and colleagues over the telephone and by email,
even if we have met those people only once or never at all. We will of course I will attend meetings at your offices or at the sites of a client's customers
or suppliers, where required, as the job demands. Our invoices will be supported by detailed timesheets, and we will also give summary activity reports by
phone or email to a chosen member of our client's legal or management team on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis as preferred.
...but don't think that Legal Hobbit is only for temporary cover. We can help assess the legal issues around new telecommunications and IT
products and services, and provide the full range of legal services, which a traditional IT and telecommunications legal practice can provide; all with
the commercial and business focus of an in-house counsel, and at very competitive rates.
If you would like to know more about Legal Hobbit, please click here to send an email to Katherine: katherine@legalhobbit.com.
From 1997 until 2006, Katherine Evans worked for the international telecommunications company, AT&T,
where she held a number of legal posts in their Europe, Middle East and Africa region, including Lead International Attorney
for AT&T's Global Solutions Outsourcing business unit. After nearly ten years with AT&T, Katherine decided to pursue a long
held ambition to start her own law firm. As an in-house lawyer, Katherine experienced the shortage of competitively priced private
practice lawyers, with a real business and regulatory understanding of the international telecommunications, IT and outsourcing needs
of both the telecommunications industry itself and its multi-national corporate customers.
Katherine also saw that there was a real business need for a law firm, which could provide skilled temporary support to supplement
the resources of the in-house legal function; but that an external law firm was not as good a solution as it ought to be, because law firms were
(a) too expensive; and (b) not sufficiently familiar with the demands of the in-house lawyer to hit the ground running. Lawyers looking for temporary
contract work were understandably disinclined to accept less than a three month fixed term contract, with a guaranteed monthly income, and if they did
not have the requisite in-house experience, might also struggle to come up to speed quickly enough to be useful.
Where there is project or temporary legal work on offer requiring lawyers with telecommunications or IT expertise,
Katherine's particular expertise are as follows:
Drafting and Negotiating
- multi-jurisdictional sales agreements with US Fortune 500 and European headquartered multi-national corporations for a range of voice and data communications, internet based services, and managed and outsourcing services; including outsourcing related human resource transfers across multiple jurisdictions
- international interconnection and related agreements with locally authorised internet and managed services providers, and satellite providers
- complex business process outsourcing agreements
- software licenses and IP rights agreements
- distribution and agency agreements in compliance with the EU Agency Directive and related in-country legislation, and reseller/business partner agreements.
- standard terms of business for new service lines, and proposing improvements to other standard contract documentation.
Regulatory and Compliance Work
- Advising on the regulatory and other legal implications of new telecommunications and internet based products and service lines across EMEA, with particular reference to non EU countries, especially the Middle East and Africa, including countries classified by the USA as "boycott countries".
- On the telecoms side, recent focus on encryption and voice over IP regulations, and on the use of digital signature based applications, all in multiple jurisdictions.
- Advising clients in EMEA on Sarbanes Oxley compliance, and becoming involved in project teams trying to bring about business process improvements required to ensure Sarbanes Oxley compliance, with special reference to (i) the automation of international invoicing processes, in response to internal auditor dissatisfaction with certain prior manual processes; and (ii) the creation/disclosure of SAS 70 reports in the context of the need for customers to demonstrate Sarbanes Oxley compliance following their decision to outsource key telecoms services/network security functions.
- Advising clients on data protection legislation, with particular reference to the EU Regulations. Have implemented inter-company and supplier agreements using the EU Model Clauses to ensure compliant transfer of data between the USA and EU. Have also worked with clients to help them understand the requirements of the EU Regulations. Have been responsible for making the filings required in the UK under the Data Protection Acts 1984 and 1998, and I advise clients on data protection issues which arise during the sales and procurement processes.
- Advising clients about the UK and EU country specific regulations regarding the monitoring of employees and of network traffic/data, and ensuring compliance with those regulations in a way which does not adversely affect the way in which clients choose to run their businesses.
- Giving UK and EU country labour law advice, on a broad range of issues, including unfair dismissal, redundancy, executive terminations, and transfer of undertakings regulations in multiple jurisdictions.
- Advising on EU competition issues, particularly in the context of major joint ventures (see M&A experience above). Involvement also in EU aspects of US anti-trust filings.
- Company secretarial filings across multiple jurisdictions in conjunction with outside counsel.
Mergers and Acquisitions Work
Good merger/acquisition and divestiture experience, with particular involvement in:
- Joint venture creation and unwind;
- equity investments;
- hive down and sale of non core businesses;
- regulatory and European competition law implications of joint venture creation, including involvement in competition law filings
- business acquisition across multiple jurisdictions and the competition law filings for those acquisitions.
Litigation
Particular experience in:
- complex IT and telecommunications service disputes
- cargo litigation disputes
- shipbuilding and ship repair disputes
- labour law disputes.
