Ayla Skene

Ayla has experience of working closely with UK government departments and other authorities where she has advised on free trade agreements and trade law compliance. She has experience of advising on WTO subsidies rules, national treatment risk, export control as well as other areas. She is praised for her in depth knowledge of subsidies rules in particular, and her ability to give pragmatic and commercially-focused advice. She has extensive experience of leading and managing high profile, multi-million pound projects involving government assistance. She has acted for blue chip multinationals, central government departments and for high profile research and arts institutions. She has experience of working closely with a large number of UK central government departments having been seconded into Whitehall post-Brexit and having also been lead external legal advisor on a number of large scale projects of national and international significance. 

Ayla has also previously worked in house as general counsel, and is able to use her insight on public policy approaches in combination with practical and commercially-focused solutions for addressing risk, while maximising commercial opportunities.  

She is also a member of TLT’s International Alliance desk, which is responsible for managing the firm’s global strategic alliance partnerships. This allows TLT to act as a sole hub for our clients when seeking foreign legal advice in non-TLT covered jurisdictions, with TLT working with lawyers in the relevant country to provide seamless cross-border services for our clients. This means that as well as being able to advise on cross-border risks such as international trade rules, we are able to leverage our extensive network to ensure that local jurisdictional legal risks and opportunities are also addressed.

Ayla previously sat on the Law Society of Scotland’s Cross Border Obligation Working Group and Brexit Working Group.

Jurisdiction: Scotland

• Advising a UK central government department: appointed as the key advisor to the ministerial department on State aid risk in relation to its broadband and 5G projects.  Role involved scrutiny of a variety of State aid solutions in relation to the schemes, as well as advising on strategy and risk.
• Advice to UK universities in relation to rules around application of European Structural and Investment Funds.
• Advising a major UK airport on State aid and procurement risk in relation to operation of a concession arrangement.