Lisa Gilligan

Lisa advises in relation to health and safety matters both defending and prosecuting alleged breaches of legislation.

Recent Work

• Lisa acted on behalf of Bassetlaw District Council in relation to the prosecution of a national retailer, following a fatality arising from a workplace transport accident. The authority had never investigated/prosecuted on such a large scale and Lisa represented the local authority throughout the whole process – including Coroner’s Inquest and Court appearances.

Lisa’s regulatory experience has lead to expertise within the food sector; advising on a variety of food labelling, health & safety and regulatory matters within the sector.

Cases

• Regularly advising foreign companies entering the UK market in relation to legislative compliance with UK legislation.
• Advising and representing a local authority in relation to a food safety prosecution arsing from over 20 breaches of food hygiene and safety legislation. Lisa’s involvement from the outset included the drafting of Information and Summons through to representation at Court to secure a conviction.

Lisa has over 17 years licensing experience and has worked for a wide range of clients including pubs, supermarkets, restaurants, nightclubs and off-licences. Lisa Gilligan leads the practice and advises on all aspects of licensing. Clients comment that she gives “clear and concise advice that is easy to understand” and is “creative in finding the best solution”.

Recent Work

• Lisa acts for a national supermarket chain in relation to all licensing matters, including premises licences, personal licences, DPS changes and age-restricted sales. The ambitious growth programme of the organisation requires a pro-active involvement from Lisa, to ensure the efficient running of the licensing administration.
• Acting as legal advisor regularly to Charnwood Borough Council, Derbyshire Dales District Council and Erewash Borough Council. By acting in this role, Lisa works as an additional advocacy support to the legal teams for licensing and trading standards prosecutions, as well committee hearings.
• Advising a Premises Licence Holder in relation to the loss of a premises licence for late night premises, following the dissolution of a company. Lisa’s swift advice and involvement to secure temporary event notices and liaison with responsible authorities ensured that a new licence was secured with only the statutory delay. The licence was also effectively re-instated without the imposition of further onerous conditions and replicated the licence which had been in place for over 20 years. Thus avoiding the opportunity for responsible authorities to seek a heavily conditioned new licence within a city centre location.
• Freeths act for Aldi in relation to all of their licensing applications.
• Lisa’s team are responsible for the administration of the licensing support including premises licences, personal licences, DPS changes, APLH training and underage restricted sales.
• Aldi have had a well documented successful expansion throughout the UK with an estate currently over 700 stores.

Recent work

• Paul has led the Freeths LLP team advising Bela Partnership Limited on planning consultancy, planning legal and environmental legal issues with regard to the delivery of major developments (for example a major urban extension to Corby comprising 5,095 dwellings, 4 District Centres, 2 Neighbourhood Centres, a Secondary School, 3 primary schools, a hotel and 62,150 square meters of employment land across two local planning authority areas)
• Paul has advised Simons Developments and Tesco Stores in respect of the redevelopment of land assets in Portsmouth. Ultimately securing planning permission for a substantial out of centre retail and leisure proposal comprising circa. 75,000 sq ft of new floorspace. This included successfully dealing with difficult issues in respect of the sequential approach and retail impact in the face of objection from other retail asset owning funds in the City. Paul advised on complex planning obligations and Community Infrastructure Levy liability
• Paul successfully advised Barker and Stonehouse on securing planning permission for a new 40,000 sq ft state of the art flagship store on the former fire station site in Guildford. This involved difficult negotiations with the Highway Authority in respect of integration with and completion of wider program of highway works
• Paul advised Metropolitan Properties Investments Limited (part of the Freshwater Group) on the redevelopment of its land assets in Lowestoft to provide a new out of centre retail and leisure park, comprising circa. 75,000 sq ft of floorspace for Aldi and The Range amongst others. A difficult scheme to bring forward due to its out of centre location and associated retail planning issues, viability issues and Community Infrastructure Levy mitigation