Meet the NFU legal & technical advisers

She is keenly committed, along with her team, to providing the highest standards of care and service to our members across a whole range of topic areas from employment to land; contract to motoring offences; SFI to transport and almost everything in between.

Her role includes raising awareness of our valuable service to members as we often help members resolve matters, saving them worry as well as costs.

Claire joined the NFU eight years ago as an employment adviser, coming from her role as an employment solicitor at a HR company. She has over 30 years of experience in providing advice to clients, starting her career as a family law and criminal law solicitor.

She joined the NFU more than eight years ago as a specialist adviser, advising on employment, land and legal and general, but for the past five years she has been a team leader of the legal and technical team and also responsible for leading on NFU Employment Service day-to-day.

Lara's role primarily requires her to ensure the NFU's team of employment advisers are up to date with current employment law and best practice guidance so that we can deliver a high quality service to our members. This includes reviewing and updating the employment business guides available to our members.

Employment queries can be complex and sensitive matters for our members to handle so it is essential for the team to be able to deliver effective and impactful advice clearly and concisely giving the member the confidence to apply this to their business.

As team leader, Lara also supports advisers taking on new topic areas, creating structured training plans tailored to the individual and providing mentoring and guidance.

Karen started working for the NFU’s legal and technical team within the CallFirst service in March 2019.

She became one of the three Team Leaders who provide day-to-day management of and support to the team in December 2022. Prior to this she was a legal and technical adviser.

Karen also has responsibility for the training needs of the team as it is essential that everyone keeps their legal knowledge up to date to be able to provide a high quality and reliable service to members.

In addition to this, Karen coordinates the reviews and finalises updates to over 100 of the business guides (non-employment) which are available to members.

Karen has previous experience of working within other membership organisations, predominately in the manufacturing industry where she provided employment and HR advice to members. Prior to this, she spent over 15 years delivering telephone based private and commercial legal advice covering numerous areas of law, together with inhouse training for staff.

Jeffrey plays an active role in providing advice and support to NFU members more specifically in the areas of employment law, transport, business structures, and legal and general (such as both commercial and consumer contractual disputes and any other matters not covered within the 12 other topic areas on which the legal and technical team also advise).

He has been with NFU since August 2019, initially working as a legal and technical adviser within the NFU CallFirst service and, from April 2023, as a team leader.

Prior to joining NFU, Jeffrey had spent 43 years working as a lawyer both in private practice and several major commercial organisations (including 28 years as a legal consultant and team leader in a legal advisory service, providing advice on a wide range of commercial and private legal issues) and also with a public service broadcaster.

Jeffrey brings a huge amount of experience from a varied career to help inform the advice and support which the legal and technical team provide to NFU members.

Since 2017, Raj has advised extensively on various aspects of employment law assisting some well known national businesses.

Raj started with the NFU in June 2023 and provides primarily telephone advice to members on legal and general matters, wills and probate, employment matters and business structures. He also assists with writing articles for member publications.

Raj's role is quite varied with the broad range of legal issues he advises on.

Fiona joined the NFU in 2020. 

Before joining the NFU she worked as a lawyer in private practice for more than 20 years, specialising in residential conveyancing, property law and wills and probate.

Prior to this role, Jennifer trained to be a trading standards officer and is currently undertaking an MA Law. Jennifer is also a trained mediator.

Chris is a solicitor, and prior to joining the NFU, he worked in private practice for a law firm where he handled a range of property transactions for his clients.

Balvinder qualified as a solicitor in 2004, and began her legal career at Coventry Law Centre before moving into private practice and then continuing her career working for a HR Consultancy firm and then for a ABS.

She has specialised in providing employment law advice to both employees and employers throughout her career, including conducting and representing both employees and employers in Employment Tribunal.

More recently she has been trained to provide advice and support to our members on legal and general matters such as utility disputes and contract law matters.

He studied undergraduate law and post graduate legal practice in Leeds. 

Luke has previous experience in personal injury, insurance litigation, real estate/banking litigation, residential/commercial property sales, residential repossessions, commercial conveyancing and debt recovery (court and enforcement).

Luke says no two days are the same in CallFirst, with the nature of the calls the team receives demonstrating the large variety of legal issues members face.

He enjoys being able to help members deal with legal issues which they can find challenging when faced alone.

Before working for the NFU, Rachel worked as a herdsperson and general farm worker on farms in the UK and abroad. She studied agriculture with business management at university college.

Rachel lives on her family beef farm and manages to find time to get outside and help mostly when an extra pair of hands are required for moving cattle and Tb testing.

She does, however, get some farm work done as she is a relief milker on local dairy farms. 

She played a key role in the NFU's member information pack on the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Order 2012.

Furthermore, she provides consultancy services through the NFU Employment Service membership, including reviewing of employment contracts and policies and drafting of bespoke Settlement Agreements. She has also been out on farms up and down England and Wales.

More recently, she has been advising members on other legal topics such as contracts and wills and probate.

Zoe has a passion for agriculture and helping members and has been with the NFU for more than 10 years.

Prior to working for the NFU, Zoe was a local authority animal health officer at Trading Standards. 

Zoe lives on a mixed farm in Warwickshire with her young family.

When advising members, on often complex legal issues, Sarah takes a personalised approach tailored to the member’s business needs and desired outcomes.

Prior to working for the NFU, Sarah worked in private practice and for the Office of Fair Trading.

Nick is from a mining area and previously worked as a lands officer in the estates department at British Coal. He has been talking to farmers in a work capacity for more than 30 years.

Louise joined the NFU in 2021 and is a solicitor. Prior to joining the NFU, she worked in practice for many years in East Anglia advising farmers, landowners and developers on land matters and property transactions.

Louise enjoys helping members to understand their legal position and find practical solutions to the problems that they face.

Mandeep also provides advice and guidance on subsidy matters.

She has previously worked at the Equality and Human Rights Commission where her main specialism was discrimination law.

Mandeep has recently taken on a consultancy role in addition to her work, which means she creates bespoke employment documents for clients including contracts of employment, offers letter and more.

His main aim is to provide clear concise telephone legal advice to our members. 

In addition, Chandra also sits as a (lay) judge at the HMRC Employment Tribunals, and has been doing so for 14 years now.

This role vastly enhances his employment law knowledge, in particular the legal arguments barristers advance at the Employment Tribunals and critically evaluating all the evidence to reach a judgement that is just.

As a legal and technical adviser, she delivers legal advice to our members on employment, legal and general, transport, health and safety, and business structures, demonstrating a wide range of knowledge and skills.

As part of her role, Rebecca reviews employment documents, writes articles for various NFU and Employment Service publications, contributes towards the review and updates of the business guides across her topic areas and provides training and support for our less experienced advisers.