John McDougall

Legal Advisor

John has over 30 years’ experience working within the financial services industry. John’s vast comprehension of finance within the motor industry was gained as a Blackhorse Motor Finance Account Manager at Lloyds Banking Group. He understood and dealt with the challenges dealers faced in retail terms, with finance and insurance implementation and development, wholesale and stocking issues, and credit reviews. John extended this knowledge as a Finance and Insurance Business Manager for Listers Group. In this role, John sold finance and insurance products, dealing with a variety of finance and insurance providers ensuring all compliance and regulatory paperwork was completed to audit standard. Prior to joining Lawgistics, John was employed as a Compliance Monitoring Officer for BGL Group ensuring the compliance requirements and commercial needs were met for this leading online insurance and household financial services provider. John has over 5 years of regulatory compliance experience and during this time has achieved a Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance from the International Compliance Association, the leading professional body for regulatory compliance.

Nona Bowkis

Legal Advisor

Nona is a solicitor with a total of 7 years post-qualification experience. She qualified in 2013 after working as a paralegal and then as a trainee solicitor at Edwards Duthie Solicitors. Shen then spent a year at the Citizens Advice Bureau as an Advice Session Supervisor/Solicitor, managing a team of volunteer advisors and delivering training and quality assessing advice. Since September 2014, Nona has worked as an in-house solicitor at Lawgistics, advising members of the Motor Trade Association on legal matters and as a GDPR consultant. During her time at Lawgistics, she has risen to become the UK’s motor trade expert in consumer law. Nona regularly authors articles for the motor industry and has been quoted in both the trade and national press. She is also a regular contributor on the Car Dealer Live Q&A online sessions which cover a variety of current topics relating to the motor trade sector and business in general. Nona is CIPD qualified and is often asked to deliver training in consumer law, employment and GDPR for which she has become the “go to” person within the motor trade.

Kiril Moskovchuk

Legal Advisor

Kiril worked for various Citizens Advice Bureaus on a range of projects after completing a postgraduate diploma at the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice, a graduate diploma in law with commendation at the College of Law and master’s degree in law at Cambridge, being awarded the Chevening Scholarship. Kiril has worked at Lawgistics since 2016 as a Legal Advisor and Employment Specialist. He focuses on legal issues in the motor trade, primarily in the areas of consumer rights, consumer credit with specialism in employment, providing advice on defending against Employment Tribunal claims, appealing decisions to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, offering guidance in recruitment, varying terms and conditions, disciplinaries, capability and grievance proceedings, restructuring, TUPE situations and redundancy. He also drafts employment contracts and policies. Kiril has been an invaluable information source during the Covid-19 pandemic providing up-to-date advice and practical written guidance regarding the government’s furlough scheme and how it has affected SME employers.

Katie Fitzjohn

Legal Advisor

Katie completed an undergraduate law degree in 2017 with a 2:1 from the University of Lincoln and joined the Lawgistics in 2018 as a paralegal. Katie furthered her law study with the completion of the Legal Practice Course (LPC) in 2019 while also working full time at Lawgistics. She studied the LPC part-time at UWE Bristol. Katie’s specialism is consumer law and her legal skills are being honed with Lawgistics. She is due to qualify as a solicitor in 2021.

Jason Williams

Legal Advisor

Jason worked in local government from 1989 to 2012, spending much of his latter time as a qualified Trading Standards Officer, including roles as Lead Officer for Consumer Education and, separately, for Consumer Advice. He passed the Diploma in Consumer Affairs (which he then went on to teach) passing examinations in a number of specialised subjects including Consumer Civil Law, Practical Consumer Advice, Consumer Credit, Fair Trading Law and Road Traffic Act Enforcement. Jason is also a qualified and practising Chartered Legal Executive and has been a Fellow since 2005. He is qualified in subjects (level 6) that include Contract Law, Law of Tort, Commercial Law, Civil Litigation, Criminal Litigation, Criminal Law, Law of Evidence and Intellectual Property Law. Moving on from local government to Lawgistics, Jason is employed as our Trading Standards expert and advises clients on all aspects of civil and criminal laws regulated by Trading Standards, intervening when they exceed their powers or demonstrate insufficient understanding. The majority of Jason’s time is spent assisting clients with any motor related legal disputes they have with consumers and helping them to write claims, defences, witness statements as well as drafting a raft of court documents and robustly worded letters.

Ian Gardner

Sales Manager

An early background in sales, working for Alcatel Telecoms Scotland. A return South to work in telemarketing/sales as part of and leading small teams working on targeted projects for many blue chip companies. Ian moved into retail as owner of his own business after the birth of his third child. Ten years on and Ian returns to sales as Sales Manager for Lawgistics. As well as driving forward our sales and marketing campaigns, and managing much of our social media output. He also edits the material in our fortnightly legal updates. Working closely on the development of new products and services means it’s not all about the numbers for our sales chief. Bringer of banter he relishes in winding up his colleagues in the legal department ‘they deserve it…’ Ian says ‘I have a great product and a great team around me, our legal team know their stuff inside out and I believe wholeheartedly in what we do and the benefits our services bring to our members.’

Ernie Taylor

Health & Safety Consultant

Ernie is an independent consultant with many years’ experience in Health and Safety. He works for Safetywise Solutions Limited. Ernie currently consults to Lawgistics on Health & Safety matters. He is a Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner (CMIOSH) and a nationally registered Occupational Safety and Health Consultant (OSHCR) with a long working background in the engineering environment (including manufacturing and workshop).

Roxanne Bradley

Legal Advisor

Roxanne joined Lawgistics in 2007 as a Sales Administrator which gave her a firm foundation in understanding the services and products required by the motor trade industry. Roxanne’s interest in the law spurred her on to study with Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (Cilex). While employed full time at Lawgistics, Roxanne completed 16 exams with Cilex over a period of 6 years. She became a Cilex Fellow in 2019 upon completion of her legal portfolio. Nominated by Lawgistics, Roxanne was presented with the Fen Apprentice award in 2016. Roxanne is currently producing material for the Lawgistics legal update articles as well as advising and assisting clients with employment law matters. Roxanne also handles consumer issues in accordance with the CRA 2015 whilst managing a case load including employment tribunal matters and civil claims within the county courts.

Philip Strickland

Legal Advisor

Having lifelong interest in engineering and motor vehicles, Philip began his career as a mechanical and structural engineer. He designed and built two cars for himself (among other things), before switching his career path to enter law. Once qualified, Philip spent the best part of 25 years in City of London law firms, advising and acting for Lloyds of London Syndicates, as well as tariff insurers and corporate entities. Philip has extensive experience in the High Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords work. He became a specialist in technical cases, establishing a career where he could talk to the engineer about law and the lawyer about engineering, in terms that both parties could understand! Philip is still actively involved in motor sport and rallying. He continues to work for Lawgistics part-time in a consultant capacity.

Polly Davies

Legal Advisor

Polly has worked in the legal advice field since graduating, working in immigration and employment for many years. She is CIPD and CILEX qualified and has undertaken a variety of community and voluntary work including at the CAB for several years and as an Appropriate Adult. She has worked for Lawgistics since 2015 and when not doing that, she’s a dog owner, a runner, yoga do-er, reader and loves a holiday.

Howard Tilney

Legal Advisor

Howard has worked in the legal profession for more than 30 years where he has been responsible for his own casework plus departmental management duties. He completed his law degree after attending night school twice a week for five years from 2002 onwards. He then joined Balfour Law Ltd in April 2009 until its merger in March 2014. He specialised in commercial dispute resolution, including intellectual property disputes. He assisted in all aspects of the business to include recruitment, as well as supervising and training staff in process and procedure. His person injury practice included, among other things, accidents at work, road traffic accidents and a product liability claim. In 2014, Howard joined Lawgistics as a senior in-house litigator providing assistance and support to a range of clients withing the UK Retail Motor Industry. He provides regular updates on changes to relevant legislation with online guidance notes, pro forma templates and administrative stationery to ensure members compliance with the law.

Darren Fletcher

Legal Advisor

Darren has worked in various legal firms since he graduated from Nottingham University in 1992. He has primarily worked within litigation and handled personal injury cases for both claimants and defendants in small claims, fast track and large multi-track cases worth in excess of half a million pounds. Darren has experience of defending health and safety at work cases from a civil standpoint. Darren has worked for and against insurance companies so has a solid knowledge of policies and how they are administered. His experience of product liability and public liability has meant Darren has a hands-on role with regards to IT, training and Professional Standards throughout his working career. Darren’s strength lies in the attention to detail he applies to all cases. He specialises in litigation due to his knowledge of the Civil Procedure Rules and the workings of courts. Darren has great experience of having to temper expectations as he has supported Peterborough United all his adult life. He shares his life with his wife, daughters and a black Labrador who seeks out anything that smells unpleasant.

Joel Combes

Managing Director

Joel started work within the Motor Trade in 1998. His first job was selling stationery, warranties and legal advice for law firm Lawdata Ltd. He joined Lawgistics as a Sales Consultant in 2001 and recognised the huge potential in developing a new warranty product for our clients who were having issues with insurance warranty providers. Joel explains: “Our legal team received many calls from dealers where their customers had become dissatisfied as a result of an insurance warranty claim taking too long to resolve, being turned down due to a loophole or a general lack of customer care being shown by the warranty firm. We looked for a product that would cover our clients’ legal obligations and help them and their customer achieve a satisfactory resolution. We quickly realised that no warranty firm would take on this liability. Some of our clients asked us to write stationery so they could run their own warranties. Within 6 months we could see these clients were saving a fortune and providing a better service to their customers.” Joel was inspired and designed ‘Driver Options', a range of warranty booklets with telephone legal support and the option of using a comprehensive, around the clock administration service. Lawgistics appointed Joel as Sales Manager in 2004, to coordinate the launch of ‘Driver Options’ at the same time as the introduction of the new FSA regulations. These three factors combined led to the company experiencing significant growth in 2005, signing 275 dealerships and selling over 50,000 warranty booklets that year. In 2008 Joel was appointed Sales and Marketing Director and introduced the use of a CRM database with integrated phone and email software. He is responsible for the implementation of our Client Care Programme, which ensures our existing clients remain unaffected by our plans to expand. In 2010 Joel updated the Lawgistics company website, making it more accessible to both members and non members. He was instrumental in the redesign and rebranding of the legal Membership Packages and started our policy of providing useful, informative and FREE legal updates to the motor trade. Lawgistics now have 14,000 subscribers to the Legal Updates, over 1200 clients and sell over 80,000 warranty booklets a year. In 2015 Joel teamed up with a software developer and started building a compliance portal to help manage a business owner’s legal obligations. It was not until October 2018 when Lawgistics officially launched the portal HR Manager to existing Members so we could test the software and ensure our development was moving in the right direction. In 2019 HR Manager was crowned ‘Used Car Product of the Year’ and won a separate award for ‘Innovation of the Year’. We now have over 400 members using HR Manager. Joel was appointed as Managing Director in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.