Profile: Yvette Hoskings-James

I am the principal of HJ Legal and qualified as a solicitor in 1992.

After qualification, I worked as an in-house lawyer for various U.S. multinationals and UK organizations including the National Rivers Authority (now Environment Agency), Foster Wheeler and Halliburton.These organisations operate in the environmental, engineering and energy sectors. During my last in-house role, I  was the European Regional Counsel of URS Corporation, a U.S. multinational engineering and environmental consultancy.

I have gained extensive commercial and legal experience working on business and legal affairs including  commercial contracts, risk management, compliance matters, intellectual property, advertising and marketing, e-commerce, developing and delivering training and advising on business issues.

Training is an area of work that I particularly enjoy. I specialise in training non-lawyers on understanding legal issues which affect business including the practical steps to avoid legal pitfalls. I have developed and delivered training on contracts, intellectual property, general commercial law, risk management and governance.

In addition to working as an in-house lawyer I have run my own business consultancy.

I am also the author of Business Agreements Made Easy. It is a practical guide to help small businesses understand legal and commercial issues in relation to business agreements (and avoid pitfalls!).