BTO Solicitors LLP

BTO Solicitors LLP

bto.co.uk

Member of Mackrell International

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Scotland

BTO Solicitors LLP - Social Housing

Lynn Richmond

Lynn Richmond

Lynn is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a Specialist in Intellectual Property and is WS Accredited in Commercial Litigation.   She is described by her clients as a versatile and able civil litigator with strong advocacy, negotiating and drafting skills. Her experience covers a variety of legal areas, including intellectual property, technology, data protection, freedom of information and general commercial litigation. Lynn undertakes both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property and technology work, advising clients on all aspects of IP transactions, licensing, protection, enforcement and commercialisation. She has worked on a number of high profile intellectual property disputes, both for and against major international companies. Lynn also advises on data protection compliance, data breaches, claims and subject rights and advises on freedom of information matters for a variety of businesses and organisations in many sectors. Lynn has regularly appeared in the sheriff court at first instance and on appeal, and in contentious matters before the  UK trade mark tribunal. She also has significant experience in representing her clients at mediation and arbitration.
Douglas Strang

Douglas Strang

Senior Associate Douglas specialises in employment law, providing advice to both employers and employees on a range of contentious and non-contentious matters. He has considerable experience in representing both Claimants and Respondents at Employment Tribunals all over Scotland and England, dealing with such subjects as unfair or constructive dismissal, redundancy, breach of contract, discrimination and harassment cases, employee status, retirement age, and unlawful deductions from wages. He has also represented clients before the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Douglas is often called upon to draft and revise employment contracts, policies and procedures, and to advise a wide range of clients on many topics including disciplinary hearings and misconduct dismissals, redundancy dismissals, handling long-term sickness absences, altering terms of employment and the departures of senior executives. He advises many of the firm’s social housing clients and is very familiar with the particular rules and regulatory regime operating in this area. He is heavily involved in providing support to BTO’s corporate and commercial departments in relation to the employment law aspects of the corporate transactions being carried out by these teams. He has a particular interest in the TUPE Regulations, advising in relation to the applicability of the Regulations at the time of the potential transfer, as well as handling numerous employment tribunal cases relating to the applicability of the Regulations, and a successful appearance at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in relation to the interpretation of the Regulations. Douglas is an active participant in our Employment Law seminar programme.

Deals

  • Advising Partick Housing Association on a wide variety of significant issues including a judicial review, complex construction contract issues, employment law, property matters and key governance matters.
  • Assisting SHARE (Scottish Housing Associations Resources for Education) to review and update its constitution and advice on strategic and governance matters generally.
  • Tollcross Housing Association: Successfully defending a unique appeal point by a tenant to the Sheriff Principal in regards to a tenancy litigation decision by our clients, where an adverse decision would have had a widespread negative impact on tenancy agreements generally and the sector.

Team Services

BTO’s social housing team includes Law Society of Scotland Accredited Specialists in: Charity Law, Construction Law, Freedom of Information and Data Protection Law and Employment Law.  

It is an established team offering a full range of services to Registered Social Landlords, funding institutions, local authorities and quasi-public bodies.

We act in some of the highest profile and highest value litigations for RSLs in Scotland and have the “go to” employment law team for sensitive handling of delicate Notifiable Events, whistleblowing claims and high level grievances/claims.

Also renowned for: a pragmatic approach to complex site acquisitions and negotiation of development agreements; charity law and corporate governance, incl. training; procurement advice/disputes; consumer credit legislation; Health & Safety; data protection advice; IP/IT issues; reputation management; contractual disputes, arbitration and mediation; Sheriff Court actions covering ASBOs, interdicts, actions for delivery, debt recovery, declaratory actions, specific implement; and JV Companies involving private equity investors and RSLs and mergers/group structures.

Client testimonials

Partick Housing Association

Across the range of legal advice and support that BTO provide us, they continue to respond timeously…  professional, supportive, flexible and pragmatic. Their costs have been reasonable… the quality of their advice has been good…We continue to work with BTO as they demonstrate strong knowledge and experience of working with [us and] a diverse range of housing organisations across the country.

Queens Cross Housing Association

Queens Cross has been delighted to be able to use the services of BTO Solicitors in its flagship Hamiltonhill project. They have provided an exemplar service, with a number of staff made available to attend to the various threads which required to be addressed. These services have all been delivered in a timely, efficient and professional manner, with the Association’s interests always at the heart of the advice provided, in what has proved to be a challenging process.