A partner in the Bristol office of Clarke Willmott has been made head of its retail and leisure sector team just a year after joining the national law firm.
Experienced commercial property lawyer Amanda French, pictured, specialises in portfolio management and store development programmes for multi-national retail businesses. She also has experience in managing investment portfolios. 
Amanda trained at Bond Pearce (now Womble Bond Dickinson) where she spent nearly 10 years, becoming a senior associate and later worked as an associate director at Davitt Jones Bould, one of the UK’s largest specialist real estate firms.
She has also worked in industry – as head of property legal for multinational retailers River Island and Farrow & Ball, where she provided commercial strategic advice on global property portfolio issues and transactions, while reducing risk, providing business cost savings and managing internal and external legal teams.
In addition to this she has held commercial roles within business and has experience of sitting on a number of executive boards.
She said: “Clarke Willmott is steeped in experience in the retail and leisure sector having acted for brands such as Lidl and Burger King for over 15 years.
“I am delighted and honoured to be given this opportunity to co-ordinate and promote such a fantastic team of specialists across the firm, which provides a wealth of expertise and knowledge to the retail and leisure market.
“It is a challenging time, but one of the reasons I am so passionate about the retail and leisure sector is that it is extremely resilient and is constantly evolving to meet rapidly changing consumer and regulatory demands.”
In the past 12 months Clarke Willmott has advised household brands including Fat Face, Turtle Bay, Lidl and Moto on a wide range of cases from property transactions to intellectual property.
Its corporate team has worked on a number of corporate takeovers and refinancing of holiday parks and hotels with a combined value in excess of £40m.
The firm, which also has offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton, and Taunton, also advises retailers and leisure operators on HR and regulatory issues, supply agreements, intellectual property rights and strategies, and on all their real estate and construction requirements.
