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Discover the latest news, insights and views from Trenches Law.

Not just acting at the helm of Trenches Law but a key voice on the UK WISPA advisory board, Sharon McDermott is a true ambassador for women in law and telecoms. It's therefore an honour to see the likes of The Successful Founder feature her in their International Women's Day Female Founder Spotlight — uncovering her route to success, plans for the future, tips for entrepreneurial triumph, and more. Here’s the full interview…
When it comes to bringing lightning-fast full fibre broadband to their citizens, both the United Kingdom and the United States face common hurdles, yet differ significantly in their legislative approaches and the challenges encountered during planning and installation. Sharon McDermott, our co-founder and managing director, delved deeper in a recent article with Total Telecom…
Boasting over 20 years experience in roles spanning sales, procurement, wholesale, retail and the public sector, Sharon McDermott boasts a vast and varied career portfolio. In her recent interview with The Law Society Gazette, she reveals more about the steps that led to her success as co-founder and managing director of Trenches Law. Here’s the full write-up, in case you missed the original…
Not just acting at the helm of Trenches Law but a key voice on the UK WISPA advisory board, Sharon McDermott is a true ambassador for women in law and telecoms. It's therefore an honour to see the likes of The Successful Founder feature her in their International Women's Day Female Founder Spotlight — uncovering her route to success, plans for the future, tips for entrepreneurial triumph, and more. Here’s the full interview…
When it comes to bringing lightning-fast full fibre broadband to their citizens, both the United Kingdom and the United States face common hurdles, yet differ significantly in their legislative approaches and the challenges encountered during planning and installation. Sharon McDermott, our co-founder and managing director, delved deeper in a recent article with Total Telecom…
Boasting over 20 years experience in roles spanning sales, procurement, wholesale, retail and the public sector, Sharon McDermott boasts a vast and varied career portfolio. In her recent interview with The Law Society Gazette, she reveals more about the steps that led to her success as co-founder and managing director of Trenches Law. Here’s the full write-up, in case you missed the original…
At Trenches Law, we’re delighted to announce that we‘ve been shortlisted as finalists for three prestigious awards that recognise our commitment to excellence and innovation in both the legal and learning sectors. These nominations are a testament to the hard work, dedication, and expertise of our team, as well as our ongoing mission to provide exceptional service to our clients.
As we bid farewell to 2023, Trenches Law takes a moment to reflect on the milestones and successes that have defined our journey over the past year. From empowering the next generation to advancing in legal consultation, to new appointments, industry recognition, and fostering community connections, join us as we revisit some of the key moments that have shaped our path.
In a digital age where seamless connectivity is crucial for work, communication, and progress, there's a segment of the population that continues to be underserved: Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs). Recognising this gap, we’ve taken a significant step to help bridge the divide by requesting Code powers from Ofcom. And now, our fate lies in the hands of our Ofcom consultation — live as of 5 September 2023.
Exploring the pervasive issue of jargon in the broadband industry, Louise Elliott, chief customer and operations officer at Digital Infrastructure and BeFibre, emphasises how the excessive use of technical terminology creates confusion for alternative network providers (altnets), infrastructure operators, internet service providers (ISPs), and customers, ultimately hindering the adoption of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) services. Here, she advocates for a more straight-talking, accessible approach to empower progress in the full fibre roll-out.
Multi-layered and increasingly complex to navigate, even the savviest of UK altnets don’t utilise the full potential of their Code powers — hindering their ability to negotiate effectively and overcome obstacles hampering network deployment. Explore how our personalised wayleave training and legal counsel enabled community-led altnet Lightning Fibre to overcome challenges with unresponsive landlords and accelerate their full fibre installations in MDUs with ease…
Proud to be at the forefront of the ever-evolving telecoms industry, it’s always a delight to welcome next-generation talent through our doors at Trenches Law. From German exchange students to local further and higher education pupils, we’ve offered a variety of young talent a deep dive into the intricate worlds of commercial and telecoms law over the years. And last month, we helped another duo from Salesian College explore their horizons. See what they got up to at HQ…
If you know anything about Trenches, it’s that we don’t do things by halves. And this year, hot on the heels of celebrating our sixth anniversary, we followed our usual suit of gathering for a weekend of fun, frolics, and awards to finish off the excitement. Here’s a quick round-up of what we got up to at Trenches Fest, earlier this month…
Get to know more about Rebecca Short, one of our wayleave officers here at Trenches Law — including her highlights at the business, how she loves going for walks with her dog Geoffrey, and why building relationships with managing agents and freeholders makes her feel so fulfilled.
Recently, our managing director and co-founder Sharon McDermott was interviewed by TechBlast - where she explored how a lifetime of breaking glass ceilings and challenging misconceptions has helped build her character, and her business. If you missed the original article, or simply fancy a catch-up, just keep reading…
While EV adoption is picking up pace across the UK, the public charger roll out is not keeping the same momentum. And with an ambitious government target on the horizon for 2030, it won’t be long before new petrol and diesel cars will be removed from the market altogether. The trouble is, it’s not just about fast-tracking approvals of EV infrastructure. What operators often don’t realise, is that strategies need to be more streamlined from the outset. And all too often, we’re seeing how legal oversights in the early stages of planning are creating significant stalls on EV charge point installations. Here, Georgina Rudak – Head of Legal at Trenches Law – delves deeper into the importance of wayleaves in building an EV future, and offers some food-for-thought on other emerging market insights. 
Adroit Cloud Consulting is a DevOps and digital transformation consultancy, built and run by experts in the field to help leverage the complexities of cloud computing. Founded in 2020 by ex-BP engineers, Pavneet Khural and Thomas Hudson, the company has gone from strength to strength – particularly with the support of the legal counsel of Trenches Law.
Tim Mercer — CEO of cloud-first technology firm, Vapour — joins Trenches Law for the second instalment of our barriers busting series. Penning some thoughts on the underlying challenges brought by innovation, he shares some crucial perspective on how taking a more holistic view of tech and infrastructure needs — with a closer eye on ROI — could help boost progress in the telecoms sector.
As another year draws to a close, we’re still finding it hard to believe that 2023 is just weeks away! It goes without saying that the past twelve months haven’t been without challenge and uncertainty for most businesses and individuals. But in more generous measure, we’ve faced a significant number of opportunities, and achieved some monumental successes too.
Every person in the Trenches Law family is important to us, which is why we’ve decided to introduce you to a different member of the team each month – so you can learn more about them. In this Q&A, we’re finding out more about Chester Walsh, one of our Wayleave Officers. Discover more about his role, career highlights, and hopes for the future of the business.
Every person in the Trenches Law family is important to us, which is why we’ve decided to introduce you to a different member of the team each month – so you can learn more about them. In this Q&A, we’re delving deeper into the mind of our Wayleave Officer, Lucy Anderson. If you’re keen to learn more about everything from her day-to-day responsibilities to what she loves the most about working at Trenches Law, you’re in just the right place…
Every person in the Trenches Law family is important to us, which is why we’ve decided to introduce you to a different member of the team each month – so you can learn more about them. In this Q&A, we’re finding out more about Kevin Broome, our Client Services Manager. Responsible for ensuring the quality and efficiency of our services, he plays a key role in our day-to-day operations…
Following the announcement at our most recent Trenches Fest event, we’d like to publicly share that the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) will be our nominated Charity of the Year. Passionate about defending vulnerable child victims, the IWF removes hundreds of thousands of harmful online images, as well as helps governments shape new laws to create better protection on the web, and run public campaigns to share learnings. Here’s more about our partnership…
As we’re now fully immersed in the summer of 2022, for Trenches Law that means we’re celebrating another special milestone. This time it’s our five-year anniversary! Facing challenges head-on and creating a wave of exciting opportunities, what has our organisation gone through during the last 12 months? We asked Co-founder and Managing Director, Sharon McDermott, to tell us more…
By 2030 the UK will require 300,000 public chargers in place. However, only 30,000 public chargers are currently online. So, how prepared are we for a greener, EV future? Hélène Maillet-Vioud, from Geldards law firm, provides further insight in our latest guest blog…
As more organisations look to a variety of ways to stay connected, there has been an increase over the years in demand for dark fibre and how it can benefit businesses moving forward. In April 2017, the Government introduced a five-year holiday period on business rates for new fibre optic broadband infrastructure (FTTP). So, what do business leaders have to consider, and how do they claim rates relief before the deadline? We questioned Phil Ray, Director of business rates at Altus Group, to provide this guidance…
Recent times have not been easy for many organisations, but we’ve been humbled to see how companies have survived and thrived beyond the Covid-19 crisis. As we celebrate our fourth anniversary, we tasked Managing Director and co-founder Sharon McDermott to discuss a year to remember...
Most operators are familiar with the benefits that Code powers bring when it comes to building and maintaining UK networks, but the perceived time and costs associated with an application to Ofcom deter many from tackling the paperwork. Here, Sharon McDermott, founder of Trenches Law and an experienced telecoms lawyer advises how to prepare the perfect submission…