AG Integrate Sport Sector Blog Series - Craig Bryant

Welcome to the next instalment of our blog series where we explain why AG Integrate is the perfect match for our talented consultant, Craig Bryant.

We’ve been placing hundreds of interim lawyers, legal ops, compliance, risk, governance, company secretarial and other specialists into in-house roles at the world’s best brands since 2015.

But there's a difference when working with AG Integrate, because where your next interim legal consultant or legal role is concerned, for us getting it almost right is 100% wrong.

Who is the star of this Blog Series?

In this series, we interviewed Craig Bryant, an experienced lawyer, who has provided invaluable support to our client in the Sport Sector.

Before undertaking work as a consultant, tell us about your career?

I trained and qualified at Linklaters – in fact 26 years on I can see my first office through the window at Milton Gate! There, I worked mainly on PFI/PPP projects but was also sent on a couple of client secondments, and I was at Enron (if any of you are old enough to remember them) when they collapsed, which was certainly an eye-opening experience.

From Linklaters, I became in-house counsel at Bouygues UK, continuing to advise on PFI/PPP projects including hospitals, schools, street lighting and transport schemes. It was during this time I naturally became “more commercial” and from then my career has swayed between pure legal and more commercial roles.

I joined John Laing as a Commercial Director, developing domestic and international infrastructure projects, and it was then (Jacqui Langley-White take a bow) that I first came across Addleshaw Goddard.

Moving back to UK projects, I joined UPP, who develop student accommodation. Starting in a commercial role, I became Group Legal Director and got to know the Real Estate and Construction (and Litigation) teams at AG very well as they used AG exclusively at that time.

More recently, I was Business Development Director at Fresh, the property management arm of Watkin Jones.

After a long-standing career in private practice and in-house, what motivated you to pursue a flexible career as an interim legal consultant?

It’s the variety of work and clients that makes interim legal freelancing so attractive. Since starting legal consultancy, I have done such a range of work. I have continued to advise on student accommodation schemes, and I have returned to advise on PFI/PPP projects. I have also worked for other private clients including some well outside my previous areas of expertise but where I feel my general experience really provides help.

Being a consultant also provides more flexibility, and so I have been able to pursue other interests, including becoming a trustee of a retirement village charity, which again provides variety and interesting experiences (including hosting a movie production!).

Why is AG Integrate such a good fit for you?

Firstly, there is flexibility in terms of time and work, which is critical and allows me to work around my other clients.

Secondly, the nature of the work that I can get involved in, from the familiar to the new, provides the variety I am looking for.

Thirdly, the quality of AG’s clients and work means you deal with great people on quality assignments. Finally, my long-standing affiliation with AG and the superb AG team means this is the place I want to be.

This is your first engagement with AG Integrate, how would you describe your overall onboarding experience, from the first point of contact to joining the client, to your monthly check-ins with the team?

The process has been slick. Having worked for so long as an AG client, I was lucky enough to be able to procure references from a couple of the partners I had worked with to get things going.

The AG Integrate team is very organised and onboarding was easy, including typical on-line training. It has also been probably the easiest onboarding from an IT perspective I have ever had – up and running immediately.

The monthly check-ins are useful as a means to keep in touch with the AG Integrate team and iron out any issues (there aren’t many, but it does start to get complicated if working on simultaneous assignments on different terms). I would say that the way the whole process is run I not only feel a part of AG Integrate, but I also really feel a part of AG.

What aspects of your current assignment are you enjoying the most?

My current assignment is an AG Integrate secondment to one of AG's client - an elite Premier League football club. Obviously, this is a highly visible client, who are in the media on a daily basis. This, plus working at the club’s stadium, for a business that has sporting performance and achievement at the centre of everything, makes the whole experience a little “out of the ordinary”.

My role is to support, often acting as internal client, on property / real estate issues throughout the club, including setting up a major development project. I think my broad legal, but also commercial, experience across relevant areas has enabled AG to provide a secondee that might be slightly different from the typical resource, and hopefully one that meets the diverse needs of the client.

The secondment was full time for four months initially and is now two days a week ongoing. I believe the role adds real value to the client, as the remainder of the in-house legal team are corporate / commercial / regulatory lawyers with little real estate or development experience.

It also provides and enables AG to deepen and develop the client relationship. I am enjoying the arrangement enormously and learning a lot at the same time.

What does your career as a consultant hold for you next?

I would simply like to continue working with a great set of colleagues, for great clients doing interesting work, taking the opportunities that come up to expand my experience and expertise.

What are some of the key trends you see impacting the current Real Estate legal market?

There is a historic fundamental shortage of residential accommodation, and with institutional funds increasingly expanding into this sector and economic headwinds starting to look favourable.

Advice on how to navigate through the Building Safety Act implications is desperately needed by clients at this time, from contractors through to owners. Again, this is an area where AG is expert.

AG are incredibly well-placed to provide a “one-stop shop” for legal advice on efficient corporate structures, purchases and sales, property management and regulatory compliance, as well as supporting new development opportunities and introducing potential new funding structures. The future in this area seems really exciting to me.

We’d love to learn more about yourself. Could you share with us what you enjoy doing in your free time outside of your professional life?

Well, I recently got married, so the last year has been mainly about planning and preparing for it and our honeymoon in Africa. AG even had a role to play in that, as I met my wife through work when she was a lawyer there!

I have two children and love spending time with them – one is a teenage girl who loves reading and shopping but is generally quite quiet, the other is an 11-year-old boy / Duracell bunny, and so weekends are often spent playing football or cricket for hours (and hours) on end. We recently came third in the annual parent / child cricket club tournament, a performance of which we are very proud and will sadly unlikely achieve again.

When I get some time to myself, I enjoy tinkering with old cars. My wife would no doubt suggest I have too many, something I would strongly disagree with, although perhaps more of them actually running would be nice…