Tom joined CG in October 2020 to set up CG’s Commercial Contract Department, having trained and qualified at leading global firm DLA Piper in the North West as part of their Commercial Practice Group.  At DLA Piper he developed a reputation for technical expertise and commercially focused advice working on high-profile and complex commercial transactions. He moved to DWF in 2019 where he worked extensively with retail clients and food and beverage clients in relation to wholesale updates to their commercial contract suites.

Tom is a pragmatic and accomplished Commercial Contracts lawyer with experience in various aspects of contract work underpinning business-to-business and business-to-consumer arrangements and IT contracts. He has also provided transactional assistance on corporate mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships.

He has experience of advising clients across various sectors in relation to a range of commercial contracts including the supply and purchase of goods and services, outsourcing, distribution and agency arrangements, creative services and media arrangements and a wide range of IT contracts. Tom is used to working closely and collaboratively with clients and has undertaken a number of secondments to client organisations.

His practice is based on advising in connection with:

All aspects of ‘day-to-day’ commercial contracts for the sale/purchase of goods and services - i.e.

• customer contracts (i.e. sale and purchase of goods and services to customers);

• supplier contracts (i.e. purchase of goods and services ‘not for resale’);

• standard terms and conditions of sale and purchase;

• agency and distribution arrangements;

• outsourcing arrangements;

• media usage arrangement; and

• facilities management arrangements.

IT contracts including:

• software development and licensing;

• mobile app development agreements;

• IT services agreements (both small, one-off services and larger managed service offerings (including SIAM model));

• Software as a Service (SaaS) agreements; and

• hardware sale and purchase.

Consumer law including:

• business-to-consumer arrangements;

• consumer terms and conditions;

• consumer pricing practices;

• unfair contract terms; and

• consumer promotions and prize-draws.

Tom, considered “a very personable character with commercial nous”, particularly values establishing close relationships with clients and his client-centric approach has been praised with Tom acting as “an extension of our in house team… [with a] …detailed understanding of our business requirements”. This allows Tom to provide “honest, practical, reliable advice” acting as a “business partner” rather than advising from a distance like many more traditional external legal service providers. He leads a team which is known for “dynamism […] efficiency and [taking a] proactive approach” to supporting clients.