People

Jeremy Newton (Director)

Jeremy trained at Slaughter and May, qualifying into the Intellectual property group in 1991, and worked in-house as Assistant General Counsel with Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle Corporation) over the peak of the dotcom boom in 1999-2001. He has been a Director of Codified since 2005, and is rated as a Leading Individual in the field of IT and Telecoms law by Legal 500. Jeremy writes and lectures extensively on IT law and contracts, and he has recently co-edited the third edition of the British Computer Society publication A Practical Guide to IT Law.

Stephen Ollerenshaw (Director)

Stephen trained and qualified with Osborne Clarke (1995-98), and subsequently worked with Wragge & Co in Birmingham (1998-2002) when he left to co-found Codified. In the earlier part of his career he spent time seconded to in-house legal teams, developing a clear understanding of what clients want. He has been involved in technology transactions in almost every industry sector, including financial services, high value manufacturing, health, and retail. He is recognised as one of only two “Hall of Fame” lawyers in this practice area in the West Midlands.

Gavin Wakefield (Director)

Gavin has been a Director of the firm since 2003, having previously worked at the bar and in-house, with Dun & Bradstreet as Sole Counsel, and Capgemini as General Counsel for Asia and subsequently General Counsel for Capgemini UK. Gavin has extensive experience of high-value IT and outsourcing projects, working across all sectors but with a recent focus on banking and finance and central government on the sell-side, and construction and automotive on the buy-side. Gavin also supports our smaller innovation clients, giving practical, pragmatic and cost-effective advice in launching and building their businesses.

Shazanna Safdar-Karim (Consultant)

Shazanna is an experienced Intellectual Property lawyer with extensive in house commercial experience. Her experience leading the Legal team globally at FTSE (financial services) and more recently IRIS (software) has deepened her pragmatic approach working with all teams across the business. With experience in M&A, joint ventures, employment law, data protection, competition law, intellectual property, outsourcing and a broad range of commercial contracts she can be trusted to provide legally sound, sensible solutions.

Caroline Lee (Consultant)

Caroline has specialised in employment law since qualifying in 2002, working in leading firms (including as partner and head of employment teams) and in a variety of consultancy roles. Caroline’s extensive experience includes advising on employment contracts and policies, disputes, grievance and disciplinary matters, discrimination, settlement agreements, TUPE/outsourcing, restructuring, redundancy, confidentiality and restrictive covenants. Caroline conducts investigations on behalf of clients, and as an independent investigator. She also advises public sector and regulated professionals regarding their statutory/regulatory duties. She is a regular speaker at industry conferences and seminars, and provides employment law training tailored to meet client needs.

Claire Gilbert (Consultant)

After training as a barrister, Claire worked as an employment specialist at law firms DAC Beachcroft and Linklaters before joining us in 2017. Claire advises both employers and employees on the full range of advisory, contentious and transactional matters, and has particular expertise in the area of workplace disputes (e.g. discrimination, whistleblowing and disciplinary matters). She also works as a Trustee and on a voluntary basis for a number of charities, advising Board members and providing pro bono employment advice

Barry Doherty (Consultant)

A specialist corporate lawyer, Barry’s remit is to work with individuals and companies to provide a full advisory and practical support service on all areas of corporate law for private sector businesses. He provides a comprehensive range of legal services, with a particular focus on corporate transactional work, including mergers and acquisitions together with trade sales and disposals. In addition, Barry also handles company formations, undertakes re-structuring work and advises on joint ventures as well as shareholders agreements etc. He also works closely with companies offering advice on general company law compliance as well as providing pragmatic commercial input, working as part of the team.

Tara Trower (Consultant)

Tara trained and qualified at BT plc in 2004, after seven years as a commercial contracts manager at BT’s systems integration subsidiary, Syntegra. Tara has spent most of her career in-house, in both the private and public sectors, including senior positions at Hitachi Data Systems and Hewlett Packard (as Head of Legal & Company Secretary UK/Ireland, and subsequently VP Legal with two years on secondment leading the US legal team). Most recently, Tara led the EMEA & Asia Pacific commercial legal teams at Twilio Inc, closely supporting sales leadership to win deals and meet targets. She has extensive experience of drafting and negotiating complex multi-jurisdictional deals, life-cycle contract management and risk mitigation, with particular expertise in IT, outsourcing and ‘aaS’ transactions.

Thomas Scott Bell (Trainee Solicitor)

Thomas is a trainee solicitor who studied History of Art at the University of Bristol. He achieved a Distinction in his Graduate Diploma in Law, Legal Practice Course, and Master of Laws while studying at the University of Law, Manchester. Following this, Thomas joined Leigh Day in the International Group Litigation department before becoming part of our team in 2024. Since joining us, Thomas has gained experience drafting agreements for the supply of IT infrastructure and software, drafting terms and conditions for suppliers selling via government procurement frameworks, and advising on EU compliance risks for the provision of financial technology.