Tom Bridgford

Partner

Practice areas

• Brexit
• Chemicals
• Commercial agreements
• Commercial and IT
• Franchising and distribution arrangements
• Governments and Infrastructure
• Industrials
• Outsourcing and offshoring
• Technology
• Transport

Practice notes

With over 25 years of experience in complex international contracts, Tom Bridgford is head of the commercial team in Manchester which has been awarded the Manchester Law Society Awards Corporate/ Commercial Team of the Year five times in the last six years.

Tom was awarded “Partner of the Year 2017” by the Manchester Law Society and sits on the Council of the Global Sourcing Association. He has also won recognition in the Global Sourcing Association’s “A” list – “an international list of sourcing thought leaders, influencers and practitioners chosen by those they have inspired from across the industry”.

Tom is expert in high value commercial contracts, outsourcing, IT procurement, manufacturing, supply chain, distribution and agency agreements as well as in franchising and IP licensing/exploitation deals. Tom pioneered BPO outsourcing in the 1990s.

He spent time on secondment at Reebok International and PepsiCo International in the 1990s where he worked with the KFC and Pizza Hut businesses.

He is client partner for the BBC, AstraZeneca and Superdry.

Experience includes advising:

• One of the world’s largest IT services companies on an outsourcing deal with the London insurance market customers facilitated through their associations, the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) and the International Underwriting Association of London (IUA), to accelerate the implementation of a comprehensive turnkey service for back-office processing of insurance premiums and claims and related activities.
• A bank on an outsourcing deal to enable it to participate in the roll-out of a new, image-based cheque clearing system that will speed up cheque processing significantly for customers across the UK.
• Flybe on a £200m outsourcing project for airline services
• a Bank on several high value outsourcing projects
• on a £100m outsourcing deal with Thames Water
• one of the world's largest chemicals companies on £1bn of supply agreements
• on a £200m strategic supply deal relating to the supply of products to one of the UK's largest utility companies
• a global agro-chem business on complex supply arrangements - territories involved included US, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Mexico and Brazil
• on the first full scale deployment of smart metering technology in the UK
• Pizza Hut on a major refranchising project
• Pret a Manger on a significant franchising project overseas, brand strategy and supply chain issues
• Pernod Ricard on trade mark and supply chain elements of the acquisition of the Seagram's alcoholic beverage business (a joint venture with Diageo), a deal worth $8bn

Tom has developed a training programme for clients on managing risk / maximising value in contracts which is very popular.

Legal 500 states that Tom has a "can-do" attitude and an excellent understanding of his clients' businesses.

	Tom has been named in Global Sourcing Association’s (GSA) A list 2016-17 – an international list of sourcing thought leaders, influencers and practitioners, chosen by those they have inspired from across the industry. To read the full press release click here
	Eversheds Sutherland shortlisted for 'Outsourcing Law Firm of the Year' at the 2017 GSA UK Awards

Brexit

Tom is one of our specialist Brexit lawyers. Contact Tom Bridgford for more information on how Brexit may affect your contracts. View our Brexit hub for our full range of Brexit resources

	Listen to our podcast: Brexit –planning for uncertainty - "What if?" has become "what now?". This is a short podcast from our Commercial team. Following the momentous vote to Brexit, we have two of our commercial experts, Tom Bridgford, one of our partners and Claire Stewart, a member of our professional support team, who are going to talk about how you can protect your business against some of the inevitable uncertainties that the UK will now be facing. We will also be hearing from Dan Roskis from our Paris office and Alex Niethammer from our Munich office about how Brexit will impact on clients in their jurisdictions.
	Contractual risk analysis and Brexit proofing - Guiding businesses through Brexit The UK’s momentous vote to leave the EU marks the dawn of an unprecedented period of uncertainty for business. Whilst the precise nature of the UK’s future relationship with the EU and the impact this will have on business and trading arrangements is currently unknown, it is generally agreed that there are five models for the future UK/EU trade structure post Brexit. The impact each of these models would have on business differs significantly.
	Contractual risk analysis and Brexit proofing for your IT and Outsourcing arrangements - Guiding businesses through Brexit Using our Brexit Risk Analysis, we can help you answer your questions, understand the potential risks to your trading arrangements arising from Brexit (whether pricing, currency, regulatory, tariff, people, data or otherwise) and put measures in place to protect against those risks.
Publications
	Making memorable client connections - Our experienced international IT team The Eversheds Sutherland handbook provides insight into the quality of our experience,geographical reach and breadth of our client relationships in terms of the full range of IT transactions.
	View, share or download the Eversheds Enhance brochure Tom has recently contributed to the Eversheds Enhance guide to efficient contract delivery.
	View, share or download the "Eversheds guide to commercial contracts across Europe" brochure Tom has recently contributed to Eversheds guide to commercial contracts across Europe brochure.
	Download the European commercial agency guide Tom has recently contributed to Eversheds "Examining the issuues across Europe" brochure. A country by country guide to commercial agents.