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Nick Watts
Principal Associate, Commercial Lawyer at Blythe Liggins
Professional Background
Nick Watts is a highly accomplished commercial lawyer with extensive experience in advising an array of businesses, from owner-managed businesses (OMBs) to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including larger companies and partnerships. He has built a distinguished career in commercial law, focusing on commercial property work, structuring complex transactions, and providing strategic commercial advice that promotes business growth and sustainability.
As a solicitor in the Commercial & Property Team at Blythe Liggins, Nick leverages his expertise to guide clients through various legal matters that are crucial for their operations and long-term success. His broad spectrum of services includes land acquisition and disposals, addressing commercial landlord and tenant issues, navigating commercial and residential development sites, handling agricultural property transactions, and facilitating secured lending arrangements. Each of these areas underlines his commitment to ensuring that businesses navigate the legal aspects smoothly while capitalizing on their opportunities in the marketplace.
In addition to his property law practice, Nick is noted for his role in structuring and executing commercial transactions. He acts for both buyers and sellers, ensuring that each transaction is comprehensively understood and documented to protect the interests of all parties involved. His analytical skills and keen understanding of commercial realities make him an invaluable asset for businesses looking to transition ownership or expand their operations.
Sports Law Expertise
Beyond his commercial endeavors, Nick is an integral member of the firm’s Sports Law Unit, where he provides tailored legal advice to a variety of sporting organizations and individual athletes. This niche area of practice allows him to combine his passion for sports with his robust legal acumen. His services extend to national governing bodies, clubs, coaches, and athletes representing a wide range of sports, including golf, rugby, cricket, football, equestrian sports, swimming, and disability sports.
Nick has had the privilege of advising the Amateur Swimming Association/British Swimming over several years, a testament to his deep understanding of the complexities involved in the governance and regulation of sports. Furthermore, he actively contributed to the establishment of significant bodies such as the Rugby Coaches Association and the Elite Cricket Coaches Association, both of which serve essential functions in representing and supporting coaches across both rugby union and rugby league, as well as the elite levels of cricket coaching in the UK. Nick's deep commitment to sports law has made a lasting impact on coaches and players alike, providing them with the legal support necessary to operate effectively within their respective sports.
Education and Achievements
Nick's journey into law began with his foundational education at King Henry VIII in Coventry, where he developed a strong base for his professional pursuits. He furthered his legal education by studying for the Professional Law Exams at De Montfort University, equipping him with the qualifications necessary to succeed in the competitive field of law. Nick then obtained his Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Economics from Coventry University, a degree that complements his legal expertise and provides him with a unique perspective on commercial matters.
Nick's career also includes distinguished positions, notably as a former Solicitor and Partner at Cocks Lloyd, where he honed his skills in a diverse environment before transitioning to his current role at Blythe Liggins. His experiences in various legal environments have strengthened his ability to adapt to different challenges and promote his clients' best interests, making him a trusted advisor in commercial and property law.
Achievements
- Commercial Law Expertise: Nick has developed a comprehensive practice in commercial law, addressing the needs of a diverse clientele ranging from OMBs to larger organizations. His practice successfully assists clients in navigating the complexities of commercial property law, and he has built a reputation for integrity and professionalism.
- Success in Sports Law: Nick's contributions to the Sports Law Unit highlight his commitment to supporting athletes and sporting organizations, facilitating better governance within sports and enhancing the representation of coaches in various disciplines. His role in creating the Rugby Coaches Association and the Elite Cricket Coaches Association showcases his leadership and vision in the sports community.
- Educational Foundation: With a solid educational background in law and economics, Nick is well-equipped to analyze and address the multifaceted needs of his clients in both commercial and sports law.
- Client-Centric Approach: Known for his approachable demeanor, Nick is dedicated to providing practical legal solutions tailored to the unique challenges faced by businesses and individuals in the sports realm.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.