The Legal Spectrum Podcast

Charlotte Campbell, Director of Fundraising and Operations at the Children's Heart Unit Fund (Chuf), joins us to talk about the charity's involvement with cryptocurrency, detailing the process of accepting crypto donations and the accompanying risks. Charlotte also highlights the advantages of cultivating a diversified income stream and its role in the charity's growth and success.

As the world's attention becomes increasingly focused on taking responsibility for the environment, environmental sustainability is an issue that charities, like the rest of society, simply cannot afford to ignore. Alison Jones, Senior Associate at Muckle LLP is joined by Carol Botten, former Chief Executive of VONNE, and Zoe Hull, Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships at Northern Stage, to discuss the environmental challenges and opportunities for charities.

Mark Brassell, Chief Executive Officer of Alnwick Garden Trust, joins us to discuss Lilidorei, an educational children’s play park, which cost £18.5m and created more than 60 new jobs in the region. The ambitious project took seven years from concept to reality, with the park opening in May 2023. Mark discusses what charity leaders need to be thinking about when planning a major project to both secure the project's success and also maintain service as usual at the charity.

Alisar Taylor, founder and CEO, and Shannon Charters, makaton lead, both of True Colours Theatre, join Alison Jones and Carla Boaks to discuss the charity’s impressive growth in a short space of time.True Colours Theatre is an inclusive theatre and performance charity. Established in 2014 in Newcastle, the charity works with adults and children with a variety of needs, including autism, ADHD and anxiety. This podcast coincides with Small Charities Week (24-28 June).

Rob Williamson, chief executive of the Community Foundation serving Northumberland and Tyne & Wear, and James Garbutt, investment director at Rathbones, join Samantha Pritchard and Alison Jones of Muckle LLP to discuss how the Community Foundation engages with its stakeholders and collaborates with others to develop robust and responsible policies that underpin its approach to accepting donors' gifts, investing wisely and distributing grants responsibly. James' support of the Community Foundation and its approach to responsible investment opens up a conversation around what charity leaders can think about to ensure their key policies reflect their stakeholders’ range of perspectives, achieve buy-in across the board, staff and communities a charity serves and can evolve as the context a charity operates in changes.

Gary Shaughnessy, chair of Parkinson’s UK, joins Samantha Pritchard and Alison Jones of Muckle LLP to discuss the incredible physical challenges he’s taken part in to manage his own condition and to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson’s UK, and his role as chair at this charity. Their conversation centres around how Parkinson’s UK embeds the lived experiences of the people and families the charity supports into its leadership, decision-making and policy setting and how it ensures this is done authentically and meaningfully throughout the organisation.Gary explains the importance of having an organisation that is committed to listening to the community’s experiences and acts to answer and solve issues that matter to them.

What are the key considerations to ensure everything runs smoothly on your construction development project? In this first episode in a podcast series from Muckle LLP, we introduce some of the factors we’ll be exploring in more detail in coming episodes.  Contributors: Lucilla Waugh, Partner and Head of Construction and Engineering, at Muckle LLP is joined by Hugh Welch, Senior Partner in corporate.

How can you make sure you’re delivering in the right way, on time and on budget when working on a development project? Lucilla Waugh from Muckle LLP is joined by Carol Cairns from Northumbrian Water Group who shares her experience when it comes to ensuring successful delivery.  ContributorsLucilla Waugh, Partner and Head of Construction and Engineering, at Muckle LLP is joined by Carol Cairns, Strategic Planning Manager at Northumbrian Water Group.

How should you go about financing your development project? Legal experts from Muckle LLP explore the key considerations. Contributors Gail Bennett, Partner in Real Estate at Muckle LLP is joined by Louise Duffy, Partner and Head of Banking, and Will McKay, Partner in Real Estate.

In this episode Jason Wainwright, managing partner and real estate lawyer at Muckle LLP, talks to Matthew Walsh and Adam Rayner, both partners in our corporate team about structuring your development project. They share tips and advice on what you need to consider, and what options are out there in terms of structure and corporate vehicles when setting up a construction project.

What do you need to consider when appointing individuals to your project team? In this episode, legal experts from Muckle LLP’s Employment team discuss the intricacies and the legal implications of the various ways you can recruit to ensure you’re getting the right people with the right skills for your project team.ContributorsLucilla Waugh, partner and Head of Construction, is joined by Chris Maddock, partner and Head of Employment and Lisa Kelly, partner in Employment.

Procurement can sometimes get slightly overlooked when planning a development project, often seen as something only relevant to the public sector. However, it can have implications for developers, contractors and professional service providers, particularly when dealing with the public sector in any capacity.Leah Heatley, partner in Muckle LLP’s dispute resolution team talks to Alison Walton, partner and Head of Procurement about the challenges development projects face and how to get the best out of your procurement process.

In this episode, Alison Walton, partner and head of procurement at Muckle is joined by Jonathan Parker from Pagabo, a framework provider catering specifically to developer-led projects. They discuss the frameworks used by public sector bodies as part of their procurement process and how developers and contractors can get appointed.

In this episode, Joanne Davison, partner in our Education team, is joined by James Armstrong and Richard Nixon, partners in our Real Estate team, to discuss the importance of good preparation in relation to development projects. They cover topics such as early identification of potential legal and practical problems, the differences between option agreements and conditional contracts and the usefulness (and limitations) of indemnity insurance, and offer tips to make the process run smoothly.

In this first episode we invite Dianne Sharp from DKS Straightforward to discuss our journey to agile working, with Jason Wainwright, our Managing Partner, Debbie McCormack our Director of Operations and Designer Simon Grundy of Simon Grundy Commercial Interior Design, who helped transform our office into a fully flexible workspace.  Their insight on the transformation, the challenges and the game-changing benefits of going agile (together with some cracking top tips) will really help if you’re looking to take your organisation on a similar journey.

With a phased restart starting to gather pace, and businesses making adjustments in order to re-open quickly, the economy is facing issues which have never been faced before.  Practical and legal issues arise in relation to supply chain, employees and contracts when considering how to restart right.In this episode, recorded on Thursday 4 June 2020, as part of an online roundtable webinar series, our team are joined by Sarah Glendinning, Regional Director of the CBI, to discuss the issues facing the North East economy as businesses plan to return to normality.We explore the steps already being taken by businesses, the issues which are likely to arise and how you can prepare your people, and your business through consultation to avoid disputes and ensure a robust supply chain is in place.

The impact of Lockdown focused more attention on data than ever before and businesses have many questions. How has COVID-19 changed how businesses record and manage data as businesses restart in the new normal? What should businesses do with employee health data? How will the much talked about ‘test and trace’ system work and what is the impact on data protection? In our latest podcast, we discuss these questions with our data protection gurus - Alex Craig, a partner and tech legal specialist, and solicitor Sam Roberts, who has spent much of the past two years advising businesses on GDPR among other technology related legal issues.

For many businesses, going digital has been the key for survival during the pandemic, but it's not that straightforward for the manufacturing sector. North Shields based Bay Plastics started as a small shop in a converted flat and evolved to become a plastics stockist, designer and fabrication specialist operating from a state of the art 40,000 sq ft manufacturing plant and supplying customers across the globe. And then COVID-19 arrived, putting all businesses in the sector under extreme pressure.In this podcast corporate lawyer Matthew Walsh talks to Michael Currell, Bay Plastics MD, about the growth of his business, the steps taken to quickly diversify as the pandemic struck and what he thinks the future holds.

There’s been substantial legislation to protect tenants from forfeiture and eviction during the current pandemic. And while this has been welcomed by many businesses, it has put commercial landlords under increasing pressure with many having difficulty recovering rent and leading some to claim that ‘it’s a tenant’s market out there’. In this podcast, leading real estate and property litigation lawyers share some advice that they’ve been giving to clients now that COVID-19 has drastically changed the property rental rulebook.

The new Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act, which came into force on 26 June 2020, is arguably the most significant reform to the UK’s insolvency framework in decades. The largely debtor friendly changes are welcomed by many, but they may make life more difficult for suppliers and creditors. In this episode, three leading lawyers explain the changes and what they mean to businesses in just 25 minutes. Whether you’re experiencing problems with cashflow because of COVID-19 or eager to collect debts, this podcast is definitely worth a listen.