Alexandra McRae

Experience

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  Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

  Nov 2009 - Feb 2010

  Tenancy Advisor

  Giving legal advice over the phone relating to the application of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986.I worked in this position for 3 consecutive university summer breaks 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010.

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  University of Otago

  Mar 2010 - Dec 2010

  Faculty of Law - Research Assistant

  Full-time research assistant. Undertaking research projects for the academic staff. Involved research into various academic law areas, as well as analysis of legislation, case law and international treaties, both in New Zealand and internationally.

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  Auckland Council

  Jun 2011 - Oct 2011

  Contracts Administrator

  Varying and extending contracts to assist in the amalgamation of the legacy councils into the newly combined Auckland Council. Involved project management, contract drafting, and written and verbal communication with high level suppliers.Working alongside numerous other initiatives that are going on in the council at the moment, and ensuring that our project outcome is consistent with the overall objective for the Property Department.

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  Simpson Grierson

  Oct 2011 - Jan 2015

  Associate

  The Simpson Grierson commercial property team is a top tier team that has advised on some of the most significant and groundbreaking developments on the New Zealand landscape, providing strategic advice to buyers, sellers, and developers of commercial property, commercial property landlords and tenants, and organisations undertaking major infrastructure projects.In this position, I provided advice on commercial leasing, major shopping centre leasing, residential and commercial acquisitions and disposals, overseas investment in New Zealand property, property aspects of finance and corporate transactions, due diligence and general property advice.Deals of note: Acting on land disposals and leasing arrangements for a New Zealand state owned enterprise.Advising Westfield’s (New Zealand) and Kiwi Income Property Trust’s (New Zealand’s second largest property trust) shopping centre portfolios (valued at $2.8 billion NZD and $1.39 billion NZD respectively).Completing legal lease due diligence and transfer of a 30-storey building at NZD104 million. This was the largest commercial property acquisition in New Zealand in 2012.Acting on the continued expansion of the Bunnings (an ASX listed company) megastores including sale and leaseback arrangements. Bunnings is owned by Wesfarmers, an ASX listed company. Show less

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  Lightsource Renewable Energy

  Mar 2015 - Jul 2015

  Legal Counsel

  Member of the in-house legal team, working with the acquisition team to prepare and negotiate options to lease, long term leases for solar farms, grazing licences and substation leases. Advising on day to day asset management queries from the estates team. Due diligence on agricultural land and cable routes.

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  Bircham Dyson Bell

  Aug 2015 - Feb 2017

  Solicitor - New Zealand qualified

  I was a member of the commercial property team at BDB, specialising in leasing, commercial conveyancing and property finance.This included advising a developer (in JV with Galliard Homes) on the acquisition of a commercial property (circa £2 million) for redevelopment from office to residential units. Acting for Frasers Property on the portfolio sale of commercial units for circa £700,000 in a large scale development site in London including the preparation of standard form agreements, leases and putting together of a data room to assist with efficiency. Acting on various acquisitions of retail properties in and around London (circa £12 million;£10.3 million; £3.8 million).Acting for an international private bank in granting high value loans to UK and foreign-based borrowers. This included due diligence on UK residential property (circa £3 million up to a maximum of £18 million), Show less

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  Marks and Spencer

  Apr 2017 - Jan 2018

  Solicitor (Fixed Term Contract)

  I worked in the Property Legal team on the asset management of the portfolio, including surrenders as part of the store closure strategy, the sale and franchise of the retail business in Hong Kong and Macau to its long-established franchise partner Al-Futtaim and the acquisition of a distribution centre for the business. As part of this role, I also worked on the digitisation and scheduling of all Marks and Spencer property estates.

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  McArthurGlen Group

  Feb 2018 - Oct 2019

  Commercial Counsel

  I held the position of Commercial Counsel and Head of Region for the UK and Canada, managing the legal work for six operating premier designer outlet centres and one new development. McArthurGlen currently has 24 centres, located in 9 countries, with over 640,000 square foot of retail space. During my time at McArthurGlen, I managed the UK based legal team and the day to day asset management for the 6 UK centres, and 1 Canadian centre. This also included the management of the pre-letting and opening of two centre expansions (Cheshire Oaks and Ashford) and one new development (West Midlands). I provided commercial advice to the centres on various matters to manage risk and assist with the management and promotion of the centres, including operations contracts and marketing contracts. This included negotiating security framework agreements across the UK portfolio and the purchase, installation, service and maintenance contracts for the installation of car-parking hardware. Based at the Head Office in London, I provided commercial advice at a group level managing risk and assisting stakeholders throughout the business including in the IT, CRM and Marketing teams. This advice included negotiating IT master service agreements, software contracts and licence agreements.As part of a global legal team, I worked together with my European colleagues on stream-lining the legal processes within the company, including reviewing and aligning legal documents and working to improve legal processes within the business. Show less

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  Paddy Power Betfair

  Dec 2019 - Dec 2019

  Commercial Counsel (Fixed Term Contract)

  Assisting legal team with urgent need for commercial assistance. Reviewing contracts in workflow of various risk and cost levels.

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  Moonpig

  Jan 2020 - now

  • Senior Technology Risk and Compliance Manager

    Jun 2020 - now

  • Interim Sole Legal Counsel (Fixed Term Contract)

    Jan 2020 - May 2020