What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

In the past 12 months the team has be heavily focused on supporting the Lioness’s fantastic victory in the Euros, bidding for the 2035 Women’s World Cup and making arrangement for this summer’s men’s World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico. In addition, we have been working on the FA’s digital transformation (the new England app launched at the end of March), the next phase of development at St George’s Park (where all England national football teams are based) and delivering and incredibly exciting summer of events and concerts at Wembley. We have also concluded a new broadcast deal for both the men’s and women’s FA Cup with TNT, have supported numerous partnerships deals and put in a place a range of new licensing relationships.

What do you see as an opportunity or risk over the next six months? 

The next 6 months will be heavily focused on the World Cup. It’s going to be a really busy and exciting time at The FA and our role will be providing support across all departments.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense? 

An effective development was short form “rider” which addressed a small number of key risk areas when contracting on supplier standard terms for commoditised goods and/or services. The concept was that we could accept most supplier clauses but there were a small number of issues that we had to ensure were addressed in every agreement. Using the rider was very effective, with a large proportion of suppliers able to accept it (either as a stand-alone document or by incorporating it into an order form). We also used a short summary document to explain the rational for it and the reasons we needed the points addressed. It saved time marking up supplier terms and entering protracted discussions. We were then able to escalate when there would be an issue proceeding with a supplier.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess? 

A key attribute is acting as a strategic business partner to manage risk whilst delivering key commercial objectives. To do this we need to provide legal advice which reflects commercial reality and is tailored for our internal clients – it is not a case of “one size fits all” in that regard.  It is paramount that we develop strong relationships with key stakeholders to enable us to achieve this. The ability to communicate and influence cannot be overstated, nor the ability to work efficiently (utilised the growing number of digital tools that are available) and to prioritise to ensure that the organisation’s legal resource is deployed in the most impactful areas. Finally, as in-house lawyer, one must always have the very highest standard of professional integrity.