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Chris Crane

Chris Crane
DDI: 029 2082 9106
ccrane@darwingray.com
Qualified
1992
Education
    • Pontypool College
    • Oxford University
After reading law at Oxford University, Chris trained and qualified at Osborne Clarke in Bristol.  He then worked in several law firms including Eversheds and a city practice in Sydney, Australia before making the move in-house.  His first in-house position was as sole lawyer for a semi-conductor manufacturer in Newport. 
 He then joined Airbus as Senior Legal Counsel for the UK, where he stayed for 5 years.  He was part of the team tasked with the reorganisation of Airbus from partnership to single corporate entity and with obtaining £532 million government launch aid for the A380 aircraft.  He led the legal side of the group-wide IT outsourcing project and managed the litigation and subsequent negotiations arising out of the Concorde crash in 2000.  Chris provided advice to the procurement function in relation to everything from jigs and tools to bespoke software.  Chris was company secretary and director of various Airbus subsidiaries.
 Chris then moved to Mitel Networks, a Canadian-based telecoms company, as General Counsel for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and company secretary of the UK and Italian subsidiaries.  He was a member of the EMEA Senior Management Team, and the group Audit Committee.  Chris was responsible for all of EMEA’s corporate and commercial affairs, including stock exchange and reporting issues, business sales and acquisitions, contract negotiations and software licensing. A key part of Chris’ role at Mitel was putting in place a user-friendly but robust contracting process.
 After 3 ½ years at Mitel, Chris joined RDP solicitors in Newport as a partner and head of the company/commercial department.  He stayed there for 3 years, dealing with a broad range of corporate transactions and commercial issues.
 

In October 2009, Chris joined Darwin Gray as a partner.

Examples of work undertaken

Corporate/Commercial

Corporate:

  • Business sales and purchases
  • Financing
  • Joint ventures
  • Company formations
  • Shareholder agreements
  • Restructuring
  • Formation of partnerships and LLPs
  • Company secretarial
  • General corporate matters

Commercial

  • Commercial contracts (sale and purchase of goods and services, resale, distribution and agency)
  • Standard terms and conditions
  • Outsourcing
  • Data protection and confidentiality
  • Software licences and technology agreements
  • Intellectual Property and Information Technology issues
  • Contracting processes and systems
  • Finance and security
  • Electronic trading and internet law
  • General business advice

Interests

 Family, sport.

  • ©Darwin Gray 2008