Keeping trade moving – can we?

27th November 2019

Walker Morris training day helps General Counsel overcome the obstacles to international growth and trade

Over 30 senior General Counsel and in-house lawyers attended the annual Walker Morris in-house training day, which this year focussed on ‘Keeping trade moving – can we?’

In uncertain times, our clients ask us one question more than any other. Can we? We want to continue trading overseas – can we? We want to grow our business internationally – can we? We want to be able to move goods, services, people, capital, data…can we?

This year’s Seminar helped General Counsel to identify the obstacles to international growth and trade and provided tips on remaining agile enough to get around them. The presentations examined today’s circumstances, tomorrow’s possible scenarios, and provided practical advice on keeping business moving.

The Walker Morris annual in-house lawyer day has firmly established itself as the go-to event for General Counsel and Heads of Legal. This year, in addition to hearing from a range of experts across the firm, there were also several external guest speakers including a keynote address from Stuart Wallace (Chief Operating Officer, Forth Ports) and presentations from both Juliet Wallwork (Custom Duties Director, BDO) and Ed Jacobs (The Public Affairs Company).

The day also featured a Q&A panel looking at ‘How we remain agile in the face of uncertainty?’  The panel, which was facilitated by David Parkin (Director, COPA Events), included: Merisa Lee Gimpel (Lloyds Bank), Professor Frank McDonald (University of Leeds), Stuart Wallace (Forth Ports) and James Crayton (Head of Commercial, Walker Morris).

Key points, discussions and learning will be shared in a post-event Q&A document which will be available next month. If you would like a copy of the document please contact the Marketing Department.

Commenting on the day, Andrew Northage, Head of International Trade at Walker Morris, said:

“In uncertain times businesses are seeking to review and consider their key businesses and legal arrangements to enable them to move goods, services, people, capital and data.  The day was incredibly helpful in providing practical advice to help GCs add value to their business to enable them to plan, implement and benefit from the post-Brexit world.

“On behalf of everyone at Walker Morris I’d like to thank all the attendees and in particular to our excellent external guest speakers, for contributing to such a high-calibre event.  I believe everyone left having learned something.”