Our Consultants
Barry Matthews
Barry has advised international trade associations, companies and professional services firms on an all aspects of their legal operations, client relationship management and leadership development. He also works with charitable organisations to devise and develop their growth strategy and all aspects of governance and operational delivery. Barry trained and qualified as a Solicitor at Hogan Lovells before joining FTSE 100 company ITV plc. His last role, before launching Isambard Legal., Barry was Director of Legal Affairs and Third Party Sales; this role included General Counsel responsibility for two divisional legal teams, leading ITV’s commercial sales representation business, oversight of Group Legal Operations and SLT delivery lead and sole sponsor of the Group ‘Developing Future Leaders’ programme. Barry also served as Group Deputy General Counsel and UK & EMEA General Counsel at FTSE 100 company, Meggitt plc. During his time at Meggitt, Barry devised and delivered a 12 work stream legal operations transformation programme which embraced Isambard's focus on People, through the creation of a Solicitor Trainee Scheme and legal ops and paralegal apprenticeship programmes, and Process, through the creation of conditional logic based playbooks and an internal client CRM/learning development framework,. He then held the role of Group Deputy General Counsel at Pennon Group Plc where he created a cost effective legal operations point solution using existing Microsoft licensing and transformed the management of Ethics, Legal Compliance and Data Protection across the Group. Beyond Isambard, Barry (together with Andrew) founded the charity the Social Mobility Business Partnership (www.smbp.org.uk); created the Digital Applications Support Lead Apprenticeship Standard in partnership with the International Legal Technology Association (www.iltanet.org); and served on the Boards of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Clearcast Limited and Zero Gravity Tech Limited.
Nicola Phillips
Nicola has worked in various senior leadership roles including most recently as the General Counsel at Arqiva Limited. Prior to that she was Deputy General Counsel (UK & EMEA) and Director of Legal Operations for Meggitt Plc and the Director of Legal, Commercial & Marketing at ITV plc. She also has regulatory board experience having sat on the board for The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Limited and The Authority for Television on Demand Limited.
Nicola started her career in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications team at Dentons and has a wealth of experience advising on commercial contract, technology, IP and data protection related matters. She also advises companies on legal operations including process revision and application of legal technology and led the Legal Operations team at Meggitt PLC including process revision and integration of legal technology across the global Legal & Corporate Affairs teams. Nicola also has a strong track record of talent recognition and development both as a manager and mentor and works with Barry, Andrew and Muhammad in delivering the Social Mobility Business Partnership programmes.
Andrew Garard
Andrew was most recently the Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at Pennon Group Plc. Prior to that he was Director of Corporate Affairs for Meggitt plc attending all Board meetings andember of the Executive Committee. He is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and also Hong Kong. Before Meggitt, he was Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at ITV where he was a member of the Executive Board and led a global team responsible for legal and business affairs, secretariat, compliance, insurance, health & safety, rights management and corporate responsibility. Prior to ITV, he was a partner at LeBoeuf Lamb Green & Macrae in their corporate department. Previous appointments include General Counsel and Company Secretary and member of the Executive Board at Cable & Wireless and Global Head of Legal at Reuters. In both roles he led global legal teams and held a wide range of responsibilities including public policy and regulatory affairs, insurance, government relations and led significant M&A projects. He started his career at Clifford Chance and also Freshfields.
Muhammad Gangat
Muhammad graduated in Law from SOAS University of London and is currently a IP Solicitor at Hogan Lovells LLP following a year assisting Barry and Andrew with delivering the legal operations transformation strategy at Meggitt PLC. He is also employed by SOAS as “Alumni in Residence” and a Teaching Fellow for Land Law and Equity at SOAS, the youngest Tutor in their history. He, himself an alumni from the SMBP Class of 2016, is the Head of Alumni at the registered charity, the SMBP. In this role, Muhammad leads on all alumni communications including the circulation of further opportunities from partner organisations, utilisation of the SMBP Career Group Mentoring Portal and a regular blog.