This includes defamation and intellectual property matters such as copyright, contracts, corporate and commercial matters. All of the staff lawyers including Collier-Wright report to legal director and company secretary Paul Vickers. The legal team consists of assistant company secretary Roger Skelsey, specialist in competition Lindey Campbell, and editorial lawyers Marcus Partington and Paul Mottran who are led by Martin Cruddace. The decision to use external or internal legal advice is taken after discussions with the legal director. The staff lawyer ultimately has responsibility subject to authority of the legal director.
Specialism seems to be a key requirement for external legal service providers.
We mainly use Lovells for commercial and intellectual property matters. In corporate matters, the group switched from using Lovells to Norton Rose because of its long-term relationship with Trinity. The legal arrangements of the group are clearly divided. Collier-Wright himself will handle enquiries from the regional titles. Editorial work is treated differently and always done in-house unless litigation is involved.