Serving and retired police officers facing investigations for criminal acts or misconduct now have a new specialist team working on their behalf. RJW Legal are part of the Metamorph Group. This new team is headed up by two of the most experienced legal minds in the UK, Tom Nutter and Paul Reddy.

RJW Legal is already building a reputation for defending officers who have been accused of a wide range of serious offences, from perverting the course of justice to bribery allegations and criminal investigations. The Police Federation has acknowledged their importance as legal representatives for the UK’s Police, and RJW now joins the approved panel of lawyers and solicitors called upon to represent police officers.

Why is a specialist law firm needed?

Because of the Police’s unique position within society, accusations of everything from bribery and corruption to the mistreatment of suspects during processing can lead to career-ending prosecutions. Even if they are later found to be innocent of all charges, the damage both to the individual and to the police force as a whole can be long-lasting and far-reaching.

To ensure that police officers get the fair representation they deserve, RJW Legal will be focusing on criminal law and services to the Police Federation and individual officers. They will also be offering professional legal representation and advice to clients from all backgrounds, providing a premium quality criminal law team who are experts in some of the most complicated areas of the judicial system today.

Meet the team

Headed by Tom Nutter and Paul Reddy, the RJW team are highly experienced professional criminal law experts who specialise in more challenging cases.

Tom Nutter is one of the senior specialists at RJW and has represented police officers involved in the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster on behalf of the Police Federation. He regularly acts for police officers in criminal and misconduct proceedings and as “Interested Persons” in inquests. His expertise means that he has the ability to represent officers in connection with serious, duty-related cases concerning allegations of Misconduct in Public Office and Gross Negligence Manslaughter. His experience includes advising officers in the aftermath of “death or serious injury” cases such as shootings, pursuits and deaths in custody.

Paul Reddy is a driving offence specialist based in Manchester and has focused on this complex and challenging field of criminal law for over six years. With a wealth of high-profile and celebrity cases under his belt, he is also used to working with police officers accused of motoring offences. His experience allows him to take an unbiased view on highly complex cases, providing expert representation for police officers at all levels.

From internal investigations through to criminal prosecutions and cases that need careful handling due to their sensitive nature, Paul, Tom and their teams are dedicated to providing all their clients, whether they are serving or retired police officers or ordinary members of the public, with high-quality representation and succinct, no-nonsense advice.

A big boost to the Metamorph team

At Metamorph, we’re delighted to welcome this newest addition to our group. RJW Legal represent a new direction for the group, who have made a name providing expert legal representation in some of the most challenging cases in recent years.

Tony Stockdale, Executive Chairman of Metamorph group, sums up the feelings of the team at both Metamorph and RJW Legal: “The launch of RJW Legal is an exciting time for Metamorph”, he says. “We’re bringing together national legal experts that will strengthen our existing service, offering access to a professional and highly competent network of experts to both the police federations and our private clients. We’re very excited to see what the new team will achieve in the coming months,” he concludes.

RJW Legal can be contacted on 0800 042 0700 or by emailing enquiries@rjwlegal.com.

Pioneering Tech Firm, Project#808 today announced the launch of its ground-breaking business – bringing together investment, innovation and the opportunity for sector collaboration and growth.

The Manchester-based firm have stormed onto the UK business and tech scene with ambitions to transform industries and invest in the future of whole industry sectors.

At its core, Project#808 is an investment and transformation business that takes shared industry problems and turns them into universal solutions.

Working with businesses that want to drive innovation within their sector collaboratively, Project#808 formulate innovation labs that solve collective issues and create future opportunities, both for the sector to grow and evolve, and as an investment opportunity in a high-growth tech start-up.

“Rivalling traditional investment methods, Project#808 offers a fresh, creative investment model that provides access to industry improvements as well as additional revenue streams.” says Founder of Project#808, Paul Billington, who set out with an intrinsic desire to do things differently and has created a business like no other.

There are three key phases to Project#808’s collaborative process; the discovery phase where they identify the issues holding the sector back, the validation phase where they validate with the sector that the proposed solution will work, and the final launch phase which sees the product developed as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and subsequently sold to the sector. The brilliance of Project#808 is that at this final stage when a new start-up is born, there is already high and guaranteed demand for it, given the sector’s involvement in developing the solution.

Every spinout is majority-owned by early investors within the industry, who not only benefit from the transformative solution for their businesses but also have equity in the tech start-up selling the solution. The solution is continually developed into market leading solutions, which can then be sold to other sectors and into other territories to achieve widespread growth.

Paul Billington, Founder and CEO of Project#808 commented: “Having worked within the digital sector for over 25 years helping to support rapid tech start-ups, I experienced the landscape becoming somewhat stale and in many ways overpowered by the big players.

“Sector challenges are increasingly arising and standing in the way of businesses evolving. Unless they are one of the large corporate industry leaders, they just don’t have the means or income power to tackle the issues.

“Hence, I wanted to build a platform that will collaboratively support these business communities whilst in tandem build for the future of the industry, enabling them to be part of something that will achieve true high-growth potential.”

Project#808 achieves this – creating disruptive, market-defining products together, which together can dramatically reduce the cost and risk of innovation. Any business has the opportunity to collaborate across their sector so it’s accessible to all, and the beauty of it is that businesses not only benefit from the sector solution but they have the ability to part of something new, and possibly even bigger.

Paul added: “We have already created our first Innovation Lab, and there are more underway in the North-West and nation-wide.”

The first of Project#808’s Labs is ‘The Pharmacy Innovation Lab’, designed to instil innovation and unity to a highly fragmented 800-year old community pharmacy industry in danger of being dominated by a few key players. By levelling the playing field and creating this lab, Project#808 has made it possible for 7,000 SME sized pharmacies to thrive within the sector.

This is a true joint venture between Project#808 and the pharmacy sector – over 50% of the Lab is owned by the industry itself.

Tohidul Islam, Founder of The Pharmacist Cooperative and multiple business owner commented: “This has been truly revolutionary to be a part of. Bringing about change, implementing innovative solutions and investing in modern systems seemed an impossible dream, not for lack of drive but given the hefty investment costs associated with this – community pharmacies simply don’t have as deep pockets as the big corporates. So, naturally having the accessibility of the platform along with the chance to work and invest with likeminded people who care and know so much about the sector felt like an unmissable opportunity. Effectively, I could create and own a share of the future.

“Project#808 paves the way for change and growth. I’m overwhelmed by the progress we’ve already made in such a short space of time – The Pharmacy Innovation Lab is now in full swing and it’s only been a few months. It’s a truly exciting time for us investors, as well as the industry as a whole.”

From zero to hero in just five months – Testament to the success of Project#808, one of the original investors in ‘The Pharmacy Innovation Lab’, which came to fruition in just five months, has traded their equity at twice its original value.

Project#808 is a UK based company in the process of forming a further four innovation labs – more information to be released soon.

UK government data reveals that in 2020 there were 390,000 business births. However, there were also 316,000 business deaths, which just goes to show how tricky it can be to navigate the landscape.

There are plenty of perks to running your own enterprise. As well as the potential financial gains, it gives you the opportunity to act with autonomy, shaping the company in your image while enjoying the freedom of not having someone else to answer to.

But there are also plenty of challenges, so what steps can you take in the beginning to give yourself the best chance of being a success?

Do your research

It’s not advisable to launch a business on a whim. You need to make sure you’re going to offer a product or service that there’s a demand for and to do this you need to conduct thorough market research. That could include using focus groups to get an idea of how your offering might be received, as well as analysing your competitors to see what they’re doing and whether you can take any lessons from that.

Have a plan

You also need to create a solid business plan that lays out the framework for how you intend to proceed. This should encompass every facet of the business, including overheads, expected returns, marketing strategies and growth targets. You’ll also need to register your business and make sure you have the necessary paperwork in terms of insurance and licences, if applicable.

Find the right funding

If you need some capital to help you get started, a business loan can prove a viable solution. There are plenty of options available, so it’s vital that you do your due diligence and compare the various products to make sure you are satisfied with the length of the repayment term, interest and overall costs of the finance.

Use a mentor

It can help to call on the advice of an experienced operator – preferably one who has enjoyed success in your chosen field or sector. Ultimately, any decisions should always be yours but sometimes it can prove valuable to have an outsider’s opinion and give yourself a different perspective.

Set realistic targets

Your idea of success may be different to someone else’s, so you need to set goals that are applicable to you and your situation. It’s important that these are realistic, too – it’s very unlikely that you’re going to make millions of pounds’ worth of profits in your first year, for example. Instead, aim to build steadily, establish yourself and reassess periodically.