Derby solicitor nominated for award for life-saving legal work
Our Danielle Upton, Partner in Commercial Property, is up for an award for her rapid legal expertise which ensured a local firm could deliver a critical government contract to supply COVID tests.
She has been shortlisted for the Rising Star category of the British Legal Awards for the work she did during the pandemic, using her law skills in the race to save lives.
Danielle stepped in to help SureScreen Diagnostics, a Derby-based firm which is a key UK supplier of COVID-19 lateral flow tests to the Government.
The company received an order for 20 million tests as part of the UK’s rapid testing programme, alongside strong demand from COVID-hit countries worldwide. This left it needing to scale up rapidly, including adding a new state-of-the-art lateral flow test manufacturing and distribution hub to its growing property portfolio.
Time was of the essence with COVID rampant across the country and the tests in desperate need to give millions of people the all-important result that would make the difference between carrying on as normal or going into isolation.
Danielle had previously helped the firm secure three premises in and around Derby and for this next expansion SureScreen wanted to purchase a 80,000 sq ft unit next at Sherwood Business Park next to the M1 motorway.
To enable SureScreen to take immediate occupation of the property, Danielle had to quickly agree a Tenancy at Will, striking the right balance between SureScreen’s commercial commitments and the level of risk they were willing to take.
Once this had been agreed, Danielle completed a review of the complex title to the property, undertook a full set of searches and raised enquiries with the seller. It was the type of transaction which would usually have been allo