John Oakley Email & Phone Number

Stevenage, England, United Kingdom

As part of the shared legal service between Hertfordshire County Council and Stevenage Borough Council I was employed as the Borough Solicitor for Stevenage BC.As Monitoring Officer at SBC and deputy Monitoring Officer for HCC, I provided confident/clear advice on constitutional matters, member complaints, decision making process, delegation of functions, attendance at Cabinet, etc. I proactively worked with the S.151 officer, Chief Executive and Members to ensure accurate, timely and high-quality advice was provided. As a highly experienced manager I drove forward transformation projects for HCC/SBC Legal services, such as new ways of working, structure reviews/changes, developing centres of excellence to meet the needs of our clients and meeting the vision/aims for the Councils including the corporate plans. At the same time ensuring my staff are on the same journey and supported all the way. I also have solid financial management of budgets, including delivery of savings or income. A key part of my role has been to establish strong relationships with our Districts/Boroughs and beyond to collaborate and deliver strong legal partnerships, such as the partnership between HCC and SBC. I have also been the legal adviser for local authority owned companies, providing legal advice on company law, procurement issues, etc. This included the role of Company Secretary.

Hertford

I started at HCC in January 2015 as the Head of Commercial Law. Over the years I have taken on the Property Law team and now head up the Commercial, Dispute Resolution and Adults, Education & Health Law teams. I have a challenging role dealing with such varied areas of law. Which I love to do. I am a passionate and resilient manager ensuring joint/cross working and getting the job done in a professional way. I am extremely experienced in all areas of commercial law, include contract drafting, complex negotiation, and contract resolution. I am also extremely experienced in areas of law including procurement, copyright, data protection, freedom of information, and subjects such as State Aid. I can draft any form of contract with confidence and the ability to negotiate and maintain my clients requirements. I manage multi disciplinary teams with ease, providing guidance, support, mentoring and exposure to my teams of all areas of the law to ensure well rounded individuals. My client care is exceptional and I pride myself on ensuring the upmost professionalism and advice to my clients. I am approachable and have a fun side/ good sense of humour. I also have excellent financial management skills able to manage large and complex budgets across varying disciplines. At HCC I am also a Director of Hertfordshire Catering Limited, sitting on the board with multi disciplined individuals provide advice and support driving a very successful catering business forward.