Tina Ranales-Cotos

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Year of Call: 1999

Profile:

Tina practises in all aspects of commercial and chancery dispute resolution, including the more commercial aspects of employment law.  Tina specialises in post-termination / business restraint work including confidential information, data protection, intellectual property (copyright and trademark infringement), passing off and UK and EU competition law matters.

Her practice is predominantly contentious, including a significant element of urgent interim relief work.  Tina also appears regularly in employment and VAT tribunals and her experience includes acting for clients in mediations, as well as undertaking advisory work and speaking at legal seminars.

Tina's client base includes banks, multinationals, limited companies, partnerships, professional firms, local and county councils, executive agencies, public bodies, as well as individuals and spans the UK, Isle of Man, Europe and the USA.

She is a member of the Attorney General's Provincial Panel of Counsel and acts regularly for the government including high value civil fraud cases for HMRC (MTIC fraud), directors' disqualification, public interest winding up and employment-related matters.

Banking:

Tina undertakes work for and against banks on all aspects of secured and unsecured lending, including mortgages, guarantees and indemnities.

Company:

Tina's practice includes company law and company related disputes, including shareholder disputes, share, business and asset sale and purchase agreements, including warranty claims, directors' and employees' duties.  Her experience includes acting as a junior in high value shareholder disputes.

Commercial Litigation:

Tina specialises in all aspects of commercial litigation including sale and supply of goods and services including bailment and retention of title (including application of UK Warehousing Association and RHA conditions), domestic and international carriage of goods by road (CMR, BIFA and common law), agency including commercial agency and distribution agreements, commercial torts, shareholder disputes, share, business and asset sale and purchase agreements, including warranty claims and business restraint covenants, including franchise agreements, directors' and employees' duties (including confidential information, data protection, and post-termination restraints), intellectual property (copyright and trade mark infringement), passing off and UK and EU competition law.  She also has experience (both advisory and advocacy) of construction disputes.

Her practice includes all procedural aspects of CPR 1998, evidence and costs.  A significant element of her contentious work involves urgent interim relief applications, including delivery up, freezing, search and seizure and ancillary orders.  She also undertakes advisory and mediation work.

Insolvency:

Tina undertakes advisory and advocacy work both in respect of individual and corporate insolvency (including administration and voluntary arrangements) and insolvency-related work.  Her clients regularly include trustees and liquidators as well as HMRC.

Insurance:

As part of her commercial litigation practice, Tina undertakes advisory and advocacy-related work in respect of insurance matters both for individual and corporate clients.

Partnerships & LLPs:

Tina's experience in commercial dispute resolution includes advisory and advocacy-related work relating to partnership law and disputes.

Professional Negligence:

Tina's practice includes experience of both advisory and advocacy-related professional negligence matters, especially solicitors' negligence.

Revenue & Duties:

As a member of the Attorney General's Provincial Panel of Counsel, Tina acts regularly for HMRC especially in relation to high value civil fraud VAT work (MTIC fraud), including carousel and contra-trading fraud.  She is currently acting as a junior in a number of such cases and was recently led by Helen Malcolm QC in a high profile MTIC carousel fraud case, which resulted in the Appellant withdrawing its appeal a few days before the start of a 3 week trial.

Employment:

Tina undertakes all aspects of employment law, including statutory and regulatory-related work.  She practises predominantly in the more commercial aspects of employment law, including wrongful and unfair dismissal involving high value individuals, directors' and employees' duties (including confidential information, data protection and post-termination restraints).

Discrimination and Equal Opportunities Litigation:

Tina's areas of practice include discrimination and equal opportunities litigation, especially for various government departments and executive agencies and public bodies.  Much of her experience in this area involves multi-day and lengthy tribunal hearings.

Employment Related Litigation:

Tina's commercial litigation practice has a particular emphasis on employment related litigation, including directors' and employees' duties (confidential information, data protection, post-termination restraints), company law matters (shareholder disputes) passing off, intellectual property (trademark and copyright infringement) and UK and EU competition law.

Mediation and ADR:

As part of her practice Tina has experience of acting for clients in mediations, including a well known high street cash & carry wholesaler and she has particular experience of mediation work in the context of post-termination / business restraint disputes.

Restrictive Covenants and Confidential Information:

Tina specialises in all aspects of business restraint work, including confidential information, data protection, post-termination restraints, franchise and distribution agreements, share and business sale and purchase, passing off, intellectual property (trademark and copyright infringement), commercial torts, and UK and EU competition law.  Tina has represented building and construction companies in the OFTs investigation into bid-rigging and price-fixing in the building and construction industry.

As such a significant element of her practice involves urgent interim relief applications in the High Court, including delivery up, freezing, search and seizure and ancillary relief applications.

Unfair and Wrongful Dismissal:

Tina's employment law practice encompasses high value wrongful and unfair dismissal cases, acting for both employer and employee including ancillary director/shareholder claims.

Conferences:       Tina contributes regularly to legal and professional conferences and seminars, including more recently Kings Chambers seminars on employment matters (post-termination restraints) (June 2010), 'Expert witnesses' in-house seminar for DLA Piper UK Manchester (May 2010) and for Liverpool Law Society on employment matters (post-termination restraints).

Career & Education:

University:            Leicester (LLB European) (1993-1997)

                           Modena, Italy (1995-1996)

                           Brasenose College, Oxford (Bachelor of Civil Law)(1997-1998)

Degrees:              LLB, BCL

Year of Call:         1999 (Lincoln's Inn)

                           Hardwicke Scholar

                           Sir Thomas More Bursar

                           Lincoln's Inn Stage Scholar

Pupillage:             Tina completed her pupillage at Monckton Chambers, Gray's Inn
                           with Andrew MacNab, Rhodri Thompson QC and Jon Turner QC
                           (1999-2000), followed by a 6 month scholarship stage at DG IV
                           Competition, Brussels.

Joined Chambers:  2001

Memberships:      Northern and North Eastern Circuits, Chancery Bar Association, 
                           Northern Chancery Bar Association, Northern Circuit Commercial 
                           Bar Association, Bar European Group.

Panels:                Attorney General's Provincial Panel of Counsel

Other:

Languages:           Spanish, Italian, French and Welsh.