PCE Automation is a family-owned engineering business based in Beccles, Suffolk. It designs and builds bespoke automated assembly, testing and packaging systems for the life sciences sector. The business’s roots go back to 1961, when boat builder Ernest James Cook founded EJ Cook & Sons. Together with his two sons, he went on to build a successful boat-hire business on the Norfolk Broads. The company later became Poolcraft Engineering as it diversified into packaging machinery, before rebranding as PCE Automation.
Over the decades it has grown into a high-tech automation specialist, working with leading organisations around the world in the pharmaceutical, medical and ocular sectors. The business holds the King’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation and the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade. It is led by CEO James Cook, with Group Managing Director Shaun Wigley driving a programme of modernisation alongside the family.
As PCE Automation has modernised under Group Managing Director Shaun Wigley, its legal needs have become more complex. The business works with large, sophisticated customers across the UK, Europe and the US, and runs operations in Ireland as well as the UK. Contracts on that scale, often with multinational organisations, increasingly benefit from dedicated senior commercial legal input alongside the considerable technical and commercial expertise already within the business.
Historically, PCE Automation had used local firms for occasional pieces of legal work, while its experienced project managers and commercial teams dealt with much of the contractual work themselves. As the scale and complexity of its projects increased, particularly when dealing with much larger multinational customers presenting their own standard terms, the business saw an opportunity to complement that internal expertise with more regular senior legal support and to achieve a better balance in its contractual arrangements.
For a business like PCE Automation, customer-specific projects involve substantial development and build commitments, making clear contractual responsibilities particularly important. Against that background, PCE Automation wanted a commercial lawyer who understood the business and could work alongside its existing team, helping to protect its position in customer deals, develop its own standard terms and support it on employment matters and its wider document suite.
The Legal Director first spoke to PCE Automation in late 2023, at a time when Shaun Wigley was looking to strengthen the legal support available to the business as it modernised. A fractional General Counsel offered a good fit: senior, in-house legal expertise without the cost of a full-time hire. Mark Duckworth was matched with the business under a part-time retained arrangement.
Mark began by spending a day on site with the leadership team, free of charge. Together they identified the areas where PCE Automation would benefit from additional legal support, as well as opportunities to develop areas such as the protection of its intellectual property. That first day set the priorities for the relationship, and Mark’s remit has flexed with the needs of the business ever since.
Most of Mark’s work is commercial. He supports PCE Automation on key customer contracts and commercial negotiations. That has meant negotiating customers’ standard agreements, and drafting manufacturing, service and supply agreements from scratch. He has also produced a complete new set of purchasing terms and conditions. One highlight was a detailed four-to-five-month negotiation of a 100-page agreement with a FTSE 100 life sciences company, which resulted in a more balanced agreement and stronger contractual protections for PCE Automation.
A significant proportion of Mark’s work is employment and HR. Working closely with the HR team, he has redeveloped the company’s employment contracts, reviewed its employee handbooks and given day-to-day employment law support. Mark also provided legal support to the in-house HR team during a major restructuring.
Mark works right across the business: with the CEO, the Group Managing Director, the directors of sales and projects, the team in Ireland, and project managers on live projects. He is now helping PCE Automation build an IP register and IP policy, and looking ahead to a risk register and legal training for staff.
PCE Automation now goes into customer negotiations with dedicated legal support alongside the commercial and technical expertise of its own team, putting it in a stronger position to negotiate customers’ standard terms. That has already paid off. The stronger terms negotiated have helped PCE Automation establish clearer contractual responsibilities and protections on major projects. “Mark works alongside our team to give us the legal support we need as the business continues to grow,” says Shaun. “We now go into deals with a clearer understanding of our contractual position, and he’s always there when we need him, often at very short notice. He works with people right across the business and genuinely feels like part of the team.”
The value goes beyond the legal work itself. Mark sees his role as working alongside Shaun and the wider team to help achieve the business’s objectives. He briefs the team ahead of key meetings and drafts emails where helpful during negotiations, so they get practical support as well as legal advice. And although Mark works part-time, he responds when it matters. One evening, Shaun emailed at 10pm asking for a legal review of a 20-page presentation for a customer meeting at 10am the next day. Mark was at his desk by 6am and had it back to him by 7.30am.
That collaborative relationship is perhaps best summed up by CEO James Cook, who told Mark:
“Your effort and professionalism are greatly appreciated, and I am not sure how we managed for this long without you.”
The Legal Director provides fractional General Counsel services to SMEs and in-house legal teams, giving businesses access to experienced commercial lawyers on a flexible, part-time basis.
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