Explore every episode of the podcast The Legal Spectrum Podcast

Nic Greenan, CEO and Custodian of Tyneside Cinema, joins Samantha Pritchard to discuss the importance of the relationship between a CEO and a charity’s board of trustees, particularly when finances are squeezed, as well as the cinema’s future ambitions.

Tyneside Cinema is an independent cinema and cultural venue in the heart of Newcastle upon Tyne, and the last remaining newsreel theatre still showing films. 

Nic shares the cinema's journey from before she was appointed CEO to where it’s at now, highlighting the challenges faced and how the trustees have come together to save the curtain from coming down. 

With the iconic building being their biggest asset, Nic also talks about the plans for continuing the story and the memories, that many people have of the cinema, for another generation and across a wider demographic.

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.

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.  

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).

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.

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. 

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. 

Introduction
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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 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.

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.

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.

Contributors
Lucilla Waugh, partner and Head of Construction, is joined by Chris Maddock, partner and Head of Employment and Lisa Kelly, partner in Employment.

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.

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. 

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.
 
 Contributors
Lucilla Waugh, Partner and Head of Construction and Engineering, at Muckle LLP is joined by Carol Cairns, Strategic Planning Manager at Northumbrian Water Group. 

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. 

Simon Taylor, Head of Chelsea FC Foundation, chats to John Devine, partner and head of sports and charities law at Muckle, about how the charity has coped throughout the pandemic, with some fascinating insight into the positives of adapting to help others overcome adversity. 

What happens to GDPR post-Brexit? Are the rules around data protection changing? What do businesses need to do to stay compliant? These are just some of the grey areas our data protection experts, partner Alex Craig and solicitor Samantha Roberts, clear up in this straightforward chat about the various scenarios businesses may face in 2021.

How do you prepare for something when you don’t know exactly what’s coming? This podcast has a few pointers that will help, as commercial lawyers Luke Donockley and Robin Adams share their top tips for getting your business ready for Brexit. 

The way public procurement is done will change at the end of 2020. We know OJEU, the platform for advertising tender opportunities, will be replaced by the UK government’s new Find a Tender Service. But how will this impact public authorities and businesses looking to sell to the public sector? What will happen when we stop following EU procurement laws? And what can we do to prepare? Procurement lawyer Alison Walton shares her thoughts, advice and some top practical tips in this podcast.

The end of the Brexit transition period means the end of free movement within the UK for EU workers. But where will your current EU migrant employees stand after 31 December 2020? How can you support your existing people? How do you sponsor skilled EU workers? What should employers be thinking about now? Employment lawyer Amy Sergison wraps up all the key points in this short podcast.

What will Brexit do to your commercial contracts? How might it change the terms we operate under? What should businesses be looking for in their existing and future agreements? There are many ways in which Brexit can impact contracts, as commercial lawyers Robin Adams and Luke Donockley share some practical examples to help businesses in this podcast.

What do World Trade Organization (WTO) rules actually mean to businesses in practical terms? What do they mean for border checks, tariffs and quality control? And what is involved in a Canada style agreement versus an Australia style agreement with the EU? Just a few of the questions that our Brexit buffs, commercial lawyers Robin Adams and Luke Donockley, cover in this quick, 15 minute podcast.

Today we’re talking Brexit, with the transition period due to end in just a few weeks. What will a free trade agreement with the EU look like? What will trading on WTO rules actually involve? How will company costs, supply chains and quality control be affected? Here, commercial lawyers and Brexit buffs Robin Adams and Luke Donockley explain what it all means for businesses in this brief and straightforward update.

Subject Access Requests (SARs) are complex, time consuming and often stressful, but there are ways to make the process of responding to SARs easier on yourself.

So say lawyers Sam Roberts and Alex Craig, who specialise in personal data management and share their insight and advice in this quick(ish) podcast.

What’s covered:

·        new changes to the SAR process

·        how to complete a SAR

·        common SAR queries and how to deal with them

In this podcast, recorded in late October, we are joined by Barclays manufacturing relationship managers Sally-Ann Cain and Martin Brown to discuss their thoughts on COIVID-19 and how it has affected manufacturers in our region.  

Interviewed by Robin Adams, head of our manufacturing team, Sally-Ann and Martin touch on themes of diversification, adaptability and communication. They also offer some tips to help with future planning.

With the UK tightening measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 following an increase in infections, the Legal Spectrum Podcast series visits the role of business in the community. Charities have been hit hard by the onset of coronavirus, while many businesses will understandably be weighing up whether they can continue to support their local communities. Here, four philanthropic experts from a range of organisations explore how businesses can continue to make a difference in communities throughout the pandemic.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.