On Tuesday 3 September, Bermans sponsored the latest Blockchain Manchester Meetup, hosted by our friends at BlockRocket.
Our Head of Corporate, Jon Davage, was there to give the audience a brief introduction to the services Bermans offers to entrepreneurs in the tech sector. Also present was our Commercial and IP team, who has been a regular attendee at these blockchain meetups.
The Manchester insolvency team at Bermans advised Andy Hosking, Sean Bucknell and Michael Kiely of Quantuma LLP as Administrators of Bolton Whites Hotel Limited.
The Hotel was a subsidiary of Bolton Wanderers Football Club and operated a 125 bed, 4- star hotel, from premises in the South Stand of Bolton’s Stadium. It provided conference, banqueting and leisure facilities and match day hospitality for the football club from a number of function suites and hospitality areas around the stadium.
In February 2017 we shared this article and in July 2017 we shared this article, which explained the current rules on recovery of costs by the winner of a court action from the loser. It had been proposed to introduce a “fixed recoverable costs” regime for business and other civil disputes, similar to the one for minor personal injury claims.
The Manchester corporate team at Bermans advised Nottingham-headquartered engineering business through its acquisition by US owned Brennan Industries Inc.
Robert qualified as Solicitor in 2008 and joined Bermans in July 2019. He then became a Partner in the Employment team in 2022.
He has previously worked for industry recognised legal providers, including an employment boutique firm in Manchester.
He is known for delivering strategic and commercial advice to clients and advises clients in different sectors. He has also contributed to industry journals and national press with articles on employment law issues.
Robert has acted for a wide range of clients ranging from OMB’s to large national and international companies, however he has a particular focus on owner managed SME’s.
Robert regularly advises on complex internal HR and employment law issues as well as business re-organisations, restructures and TUPE transactions. He is particularly experienced at representing clients in the Employment Tribunal and regularly appears as an advocate.
Rob is an Associate in the Commercial team, having joined Bermans in July 2019.
Rob advises on all types of commercial contracts, with particular expertise in agreements for the creative and tech sectors. He has assisted a range of clients, including software developers, platform providers, music publishers and online retailers, and can advise on various matters, such as the importance of robust terms and conditions, the protection and licensing of intellectual property rights, and data protection matters.
Before deciding to train in law, Rob gained an MA in Music Industry Studies from the University of Liverpool. This included a dissertation based on his own original research, studying levels of understanding of relevant intellectual property issues amongst musicians in Liverpool.
Since then, Rob has had a number of commercially-focused roles, including creative industries business adviser, project manager, and owner of a record label. Rob’s frequent dealings with commercial contracts inspired him to train as a commercial lawyer.
Most asset finance agreements contain an express provision that any equipment added to the asset financed by the lessee automatically belongs to the financier. This reflects the common law doctrine of accession, by which the rights of the original owner of the added equipment are extinguished.
We recently successfully represented Ferrari Financial Services GMBH in roundly defeating a claim by administrators who sought to interfere with Ferrari’s right to possession of a vehicle worth in the region of £7 Million.
The Government Equalities Office has told the Treasury Select Committee that it is planning to extend the gender pay gap reporting obligations. The gender pay gap refers to the fact that average pay for men is greater than average pay for women. Since 2017, companies with 250 or more employees must publish their gender pay gap figures.
If employees are underpaid for their holiday, they can bring an unlawful deduction from wages claim. A claim must be submitted within 3 months of the underpayment, or the last in any series of deductions. In the case of Bear Scotland v Fulton, the Employment Appeal Tribunal said that a break of three months or more between deductions will break the series. This significantly limits how far back employees can go, because holidays will often be three months or more apart.