John is an experienced commercial lawyer with a particular focus on franchising, intellectual property and data protection.

John joined Phillips as a Legal Director in 2025, having previously practised at Allen & Overy, IBB Law and Knights but has spent most of his career working in-house, having joined Toni&Guy as their first in-house lawyer in 2003. During almost 20 years at Toni&Guy as Legal Manager and then General Counsel, John’s experience covered a broad range of work, including franchising, commercial, intellectual property, data protection, compliance, employment, real estate, dispute resolution, corporate and company secretarial matters.

 Work Highlights:

 Franchising

• Drafting and updating franchise agreements for a variety of business systems including hairdressing, domiciliary care, home services, accountants and fitness clubs
• Franchise Agreement reviews for prospective franchisees
• Acting for franchisors on franchise resales, ensuring the franchisor retains appropriate controls
• Overhauling Toni&Guy’s suite of template franchise documents
• Overseeing the execution of more than 1,000 franchise agreements across two brands in both the UK and more than 40 overseas territories, dealing with registration and disclosure where relevant
• Developing a streamlined system at Toni&Guy to deal with franchise terminations and subsequent head-office takeover of salons

 Commercial

• Distribution Agreements
• Promotion Agreements
• Supply Agreements
• Terms & Conditions

 Data Protection

• Toni&Guy’s Privacy Officer and overseeing GDPR projects
• Drafting Privacy Policies
• Handling Data Subject Access Requests
• Assisting in response to cyber attacks

 Intellectual Property

• Managing Toni&Guy’s Trademark portfolio
• Negotiating licence and sponsorship agreements
• Drafting and negotiating confidentiality agreements

 Corporate

• Articles of Association
• Shareholders Agreements
• LLP Deeds
• Cross Option Agreements
• Business Sales
• Share Sales
• In-house advisor on the sale of Toni&Guy Products, business and several corporate reorganisations

Recognition:

 John is listed as a Recommended Lawyer in franchising by Legal 500

Endorsements:

 From LinkedIn:

 I worked with John as CEO of Toni&Guy/Label.m. John proved to be a trusted and valued member of the senior management team throughout my time with the business, and demonstrated strong relevant commercial awareness and knowledge of the specifics of our business across the scope of his broad legal expertise. A very reliable business partner, good to work with, and adding value.

Former CEO of Toni&Guy

I have worked with John in his role as General Counsel of Toni&Guy for many years. He is a pragmatic and highly knowledgeable generalist lawyer and has a wealth of retail experience to draw from. John also has a keen eye for intellectual property, in particular global brand protection and enforcement, and can quickly get a handle on complex IP and trade mark issues. Approachable and a pleasure to work with.

Partner at External Firm from John’s time at Toni&Guy