Andrew Bees

Whilst it’s become a cliché amongst lawyers, I’ve always been a pragmatist. Whilst each party always wants to secure the best position for itself, the nature of the contracts on which I advise invariably means that the parties need to work together over an extended period and so reaching an acceptable balance between risk and reward, and preserving goodwill, is key. Whilst it’s vital to understand and then to retain sight of each party’s commercial intentions, give-and-take is also important, and I don’t look to score points for the sake of it. My job is to help clients reach outcomes they’re happy with, whether those outcomes are agreeing a contract, understanding a regulatory obligation or settling a dispute. I speak in plain English, and I’m efficient.

Initially a corporate lawyer, I joined White & Black in 2024 after over a dozen years within UK government. In that role, I advised widely, with a focus on the UK’s security, defence and intelligence environment, on outsourcing projects (including IT, technology, telecommunications, professional services and facilities management), IPR protection and exploitation, and cyber security (including incident response, management of industry assurance schemes and government cyber defence services, the development and implementation of cyber regulation and policy, and telecommunications security).