What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

The launch of Not On The High Street (NOTHS) on Deliveroo. A high profile and complex deal, as it was the first marketplace collaboration with Deliveroo – enabling select sellers to sell separately under the NOTHS brand name on Deliveroo. The partnership navigated several novel legal and logistical considerations and aims to expand NOTHS’ brand awareness and potential customer reach.  As the lead lawyer, I worked closely with the internal Commercial and Finance stakeholders, as well as with Deliveroo’s Legal and Commercial stakeholders, to structure an effective and more balanced partnership, ensuring that NOTHS were sufficiently protected. I also supported sellers who were offered the Deliveroo opportunity by helping prepare an onboarding document, making it easier for them to understand how the arrangement would work legally and among all three parties (them, NOTHS and Deliveroo). My individual contributions were publicly recognised by the CEO in an all-company meeting. The partnership launched in September 2024 and was reported on in retail press.

NOTHS delivery management – an innovative service offering at NOTHS, at the end of 2024/early 2025, we soft-launched a delivery & fulfilment service that provides sellers access to preferential shipping rates and label printing through a delivery management system. In the future,  it would also support order tracking. NOTHS is a marketplace and does not fulfil orders directly, so this was a challenging proposition. It involved multi-faceted, complex legal negotiations with carriers, the delivery management service platform and outsourced professional services. As the lead lawyer negotiating the contracts, we needed to ensure the novel services could work for our sellers and NOTHS legally as NOTHS was the contracting party with the key suppliers but its sellers were the ultimate beneficiaries. In relation to the project, the CFO highlighted my ethics, staying on track with timelines, deep legal knowledge and passion for NOTHS to the wider company.

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive work environment?

As former Chair of our Diversity Working Group, I’ve helped NOTHS make meaningful progress toward building a more inclusive company. Internally, I fostered a greater sense of belonging and representation by helping to organise initiatives such as an Eid celebratory lunch, raising awareness on Ramadan through internal educating and championing culturally significant events such Diwali or Black History Month. I have advocated and supported on more diverse website occasion collections and photography. I’ve also shared progress and insights, both internally and externally, including through Carescribe where I offered learnings that other companies can apply. In order to prioritise DE&I, you have to treat it like any other important workstream – meet regularly, foster a safe space for different views, recognise wins, use learnings, have a strategy and look ahead.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on, of which you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful?

AI – I believe in-house lawyers should be mindful not just of the legal risks with AI, but also of the risks of not using AI. Lawyers have an opportunity to actively help businesses embrace and champion AI, whilst ensuring it’s used safely. What’s helped me strike a better balance is establishing a cross-functional group, agreeing AI principles, process and risk ratings together and exercising pragmatism where possible.