Top lawyer joins Darwin Gray
By Simon Newsam
Darwin Gray Solicitors has appointed a new partner, Chris Crane, to head up its Company Commercial Law team.
Corporate and commercial law specialist Chris Crane joins Darwin Gray Solicitors as a partner
Chris, 43, joins the Cardiff-based firm from RDP Solicitors in Newport where he was a partner and head of the company/commercial department. He also brings with him a wealth of corporate law experience through working in senior positions in blue chip multinational businesses.
Having been educated at Pontypool College and Oxford University, Chris worked for several law firms, including a city practice in Sydney, Australia before moving back to Gwent as an in-house lawyer for a semi-conductor manufacturer in Newport.
He joined Airbus as Senior Legal Counsel for the UK, where he was part of the team tasked with the reorganisation of the company from a partnership to a single corporate entity. He was also involved in securing £532 million of government launch aid for the A380 aircraft, he led the legal side of the group-wide IT outsourcing project and he managed the litigation and subsequent negotiations arising out of the Concorde crash in Paris in 2000.
Chris moved to Canadian telecoms giant Mitel Networks where he was General Counsel for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), company secretary of the UK and Italian subsidiaries and a member of the EMEA Senior Management Team.
His role at EMEA gave him responsibility for corporate and commercial affairs, including stock exchange and reporting issues, business sales and acquisitions, contract negotiations and software licensing. A key part of his role was putting in place a user-friendly but robust contracting process.
At Darwin Gray, he will be dealing with a broad range of issues including business sales and purchases, general corporate matters, commercial contracts, IT law and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). His arrival means Darwin Gray has grown to 10 partners and 19 lawyers since it was founded by Donald Gray and Bethan Darwin in 2002.
Managing Partner Jason Smith said: “We are delighted to welcome Chris to the practice. He is very well known in corporate and commercial law and he will undoubtedly help us to further expand in this sector. He also brings invaluable experience in several important growth areas including data protection, software licensing, electronic trading and internet law.”
Chris Crane said, “Darwin Gray is one of the most respected practices in South Wales with a growing reputation for excellence. I was very pleased to take the opportunity to join them and I hope my particular skills and experience will help the firm continue its impressive rate of development.”
Tags: Cardiff, Chris Crane, Commercial Law, Company Law, Darwin Gray Solicitors, Gwent, South Wales
