Having trained and qualified at Addleshaw Goddard in Manchester, Surayya joined CG in August 2021 to help build & grow the Commercial Team.

Surayya has experience on advising clients of all sizes (from FTSE100s to start-ups and family-run businesses) across a broad spectrum of sectors, including Tech, Media & Entertainment, Health, Energy & Utilities, Retail & Consumer and Sport. She uses her industry knowledge to take on the role of a business advisor to Clients by taking a pragmatic approach against the commercial landscape to help them to achieve their desired outcome in an easy-to-understand and efficient manner, managing the risks faced by the business. To quote two of our Clients: “[Surayya] has a great way of making law, which to us non-legals is complex, sound simple – which is superb as it then allows us to make business decisions with the comfort of understanding [her] legal advice.” and “I’d get brain freeze without her clear understanding of contracts”.

As part of CG’s Legal Managed Service offering, Surayya works with many Clients as an extension of (or acting as) their in-house legal function, assisting with all aspects of the business by working with the internal teams to fully understanding how it operates and functions. She also has expertise in drafting, negotiating and advising on a range of matters, where she has quickly become the ‘go-to’ for many clients, including:

• SaaS contracts, including the technical aspects and offerings under the agreements;

• outsourced services agreements and distribution & manufacturing agreements;

• template documentation and precedents for Clients to use when contracting with their customers and suppliers, which reflect the businesses’ needs taking into account the current commercial landscape;

• general data protection queries and transfers of personal data under a commercial contract; and

• a broad range of commercial issues and commercial contracts, working with business subject matter experts to draft technical and commercial schedules,

and has experience in delivering training to Clients on areas that are identified as being key development areas for the business.

Surayya also has a particular focus on assisting businesses with arrangements in relation to their IP and branding, including:

• providing corporate support & advice on the purchase of IP, brand and tech-heavy businesses;

• advising on protecting and exploiting IP, sponsorship, partnerships and branding, including drafting, negotiating & advising on Tatti Lashes’ collaboration with Khloe Kardashian;

• advising on the impact of developments in the industry, including advising Europe’s leading modelling agency on the risk of avatars and AI-generated images on the industry;

• non-contentious IP arrangements, including the worldwide licensing of brands and related matters, trade marks and patent licences; and

• advising on the ownership of and granting rights in relation to developed IP, including ensuring that the position in commercial arrangements correctly reflect what has been agreed between the parties in relation to ownership, licensing and exploitation.

Clients have commented that Surayya is ‘incredibly knowledgeable’ and ‘her personable but always professional nature makes her a real delight to work with.’ She has been known to have ‘a way to make difficult changes / topics look and sound easy, when she explaining them…which makes everyone’s job so much easier’.

Other than day-to-day matters, Surayya is keen to support developing businesses within the region and has built a network working with early-stage business communities to provide assistance in a manner which is tailored to their needs. This includes advising a Manchester-based start-up on IP aspects of its Innovate UK-backed project (being drafting and negotiating IP licences, software development agreements and helping to put in place processes and documentation to assist with the implementation of the project), acting as a sounding board for businesses within this space and structuring legal support in a way which suits their requirements.

She has also been appointed as an Advisory Board Member by Manchester-based CIC, Reform Radio, to help support them through their growth.