Former local government solicitor and husband set up food law ABS

A former local government lawyer and her environmental health specialist husband have this month launched an alternative business structure (ABS) focusing on food law.

ABC Food Law is the brainchild of Dr Andy Bowles, who has previously been a lecturer in environmental health at the College of North East London and acting head of environmental health at the London Borough of Enfield, and Sharon Bowles, who has a number of years’ experience of working as a lawyer in local government.

Mrs Bowles trained at Enfield Council and followed that with a period in private practice at a London firm, where she specialised in contract and local government law.

Dr and Mrs Bowles have been running ABC Food Safety, a provider of food law training to local authority food enforcement officers, since 2002. The company also runs training on behalf of the Food Standards Agency.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority granted ABC Food Law an ABS licence on 27 March, effective from 2 April. Mrs Bowles is the named Head of Legal Practice, while Dr Bowles will act as Head of Finance and Administration.

Based at Norwich Research Park, ABC Food Law is intended to provide a specialist, one stop shop, food law practice advising organisations in both the public and private sectors.

It will cover areas including food hygiene, food standards and imported food law as well as the likes of criminal litigation, employment and commercial law.

Sharon Bowles said: “We have taken advantage of the ABS scheme to set up ABC Food Law as a niche law firm to fill a real gap in the market. For the last 11 years we have run a successful food law training company which specialised in CPD courses for local authority enforcement officers. We can now offer our clients the full range of legal services and Andy can take an active part in the management of the business.”

She added: “I think that ABC Food Law is unusual in that it can provide expert guidance and advice on food safety matters in a confidential way that would be subject to legal privilege should the matter result in litigation. We can, for example, undertake reviews of enforcement notices and prosecution files and provide guidance on technical matters such as approval applications."