About

Team size: Six

Major legal advisers: Burges Salmon, DLA Piper, Fried Frank, Ropes & Gray, Taylor Wessing

What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year?

There have been many developments in our business over the last 12-18 months. When I joined Via from Google, as the sole European counsel, we were already operating a growing technology business with nearly 150 partners globally and a consumer ride-sharing platform. With the onset of Covid-19, we and our partners, many of whom are public authorities and transport operators, were faced with a number of unprecedented challenges. Working with our business teams, we were able to respond rapidly, adapting our services and operations, while keeping on top of evolving Covid-19 guidance.

In parallel, over that challenging period, we’ve continued to support the significant expansion of our TransitTech business, which now has a footprint of over 500 partnerships globally. Some of these new services were Covid-related, and so had to be scoped and agreed quickly (sometimes in a couple of weeks). Others have been larger, longer term, partnerships, such as with Transport for Wales to launch a new tech-powered bus service, and with Milton Keynes Council to replace fixed-line bus routes with a on-demand service. All these projects have been highly innovative and, as a Legal team, we’ve had to be agile and creative and, truly, an enabler for our business.

Our European business also went through a reorganisation last year and, working with our US colleagues, we completed three acquisitions, and we’ve supported the continued growth of our global technology and engineering hubs in Israel and Bulgaria.

There have been a number of legislative changes in response to Covid-19. Have these benefited your company or had any other interesting effects?

In terms of interesting effects, I’m very proud that we were able to respond to Covid-19 by using our technology to power innovative emergency transport services, such as an intelligent platform to deliver emergency supplies in Sutton, and an on-demand service to transport NHS staff in the East Midlands. Covid-19 has shown the importance of flexibility and resilience planning in transport and how technology-enabled solutions can transform existing networks.

What were the main difficulties your company faced during the initial Covid-19 lockdown?

Our key priority in response to Covid-19 was ensuring that we kept users of our platform, and our teams, safe. We worked closely with regulatory bodies and transport partners to ensure that, where rides continued, they could be taken safely. I’m proud of what we have achieved over a rollercoaster 18 months. As a Legal team, we’ve supported continued business growth, strategic partnerships, and truly innovative projects, across over 35 countries, as wellas dealing with all the challenges of Covid-19.