Freeths LLP

Adam Boyd

Adam Boyd acts on a full range of contentious real estate matters on behalf of landlords and tenants alike in relation to all aspects of commercial property. This includes managing landlord and tenant disputes, opposed and unopposed lease renewal proceedings, dilapidations claims, rights of way, party wall claims, right to light issues, rent reviews, disputed break notices, applications to assign/underlet, insolvencies, disclaimer, forfeiture and repossession, recovery of rent arrears and enforcement of restrictive covenants. Adam is listed as a Recommended Lawyer and Next Generation Partner in the Legal 500 (2024 edition) in Personal Tax, Trusts and Probate.

Adam Watson

Partner

Adam Edwards

Director

Adrian Hackett

Tax partner. Specialisms: corporate restructuring, tax structuring of investment funds, property taxes. Cases include a number of demergers, structuring inward investment into large renewable energy projects, recapitalisation of the UK subsidiaries of a large multinational and structuring several private equity and property funds.

Adrian Denton

Adrian has 10 years’ experience representing his clients in clinical negligence claims.He deals with many types of medical and dental cases, from those of the utmost severity to complex claims of a lesser value.Adrian is noted for his attention to detail and tenacious pursuit of his client’s interests to obtain the best outcome which properly compensates for the results of negligent medical care. He is a lawyer based in Nottingham.

Alison Heathcote

Alison is a construction lawyer who specialises in non-contentious building procurement matters. Her experience includes work for both the private and public sector organisations.Alison has experience and expertise in drafting and amending building and engineering contracts, including all versions of the JCT suite of contracts and NEC and institutional forms of contract.She also advises on the drafting and amendments of consultant’s appointments (industry standard and bespoke), warranties, bonds, guarantees, development and funding agreements, agreement for leases, novation agreements and ancillary project documentation.Alison has previously spent five years working in the public sector for two different County Councils. Her experience there includes advising on public procurement procedures and issues such as state aid, internal governance, and the setting up and operation of framework agreements.

Amanda Trewhella

Amanda is a specialist employment solicitor based in our London office. She advises on all aspects of the employment relationship, from recruitment and the drafting of HR policies and employee handbooks, through to advising on business reorganisations, disciplinary and grievance procedures, and drafting and negotiating settlement agreements and severance packages.

Amy Morley

Partner in the construction team specialising in the management of construction and engineering claims with particular expertise in adjudication.

Andrew Maxwell

Partner and Head of Competition Andrew leads the Competition team at Freeths LLP. He has extensive expertise on EU and UK competition/antitrust law and all related practice areas. Andrew represents both private and public sector clients in antitrust proceedings before the European Commission, the UK competition regulators and the courts. He advises on all aspects of worldwide merger control, EU/UK merger investigations, merger arbitrage, EU/UK competition law and litigation, antitrust and market investigations, competition compliance, dawn raids and leniency applications, state aid, procurement and litigation, regulatory, trade and EU law.

Andrew Nichol

Andrew is a leading real estate partner in the Liverpool market. He has over 15 years’ experience in property investment acquisitions, disposals, and management and property finance work.Andrew’s specialisms include acquisition finance, development finance, refinancing, and lending into specific structures around the Business Premises Renovation Allowance.

Andrew Dashwood-Begg

Andrew’s work is split between dealing with commercial disputes, with a particular focus on company and partnership disputes and property disputes, focusing on commercial and agricultural property and development. Andrew also uses his experience of managing disputes to advise clients on contractual interpretation and risk management.

Andy Francey

Andy is a partner in the Freeths corporate team based in Leeds. Andy is a corporate lawyer advising on the full spectrum of corporate transactions and matters ranging from mergers and acquisitions, disposals, MBO’s, investments and private equity through to start ups, joint ventures and corporate governance.Andy also advises on banking transactions, advising both borrowers and lenders on facilities and security matters. Andy has a wealth of experience in advising on substantial bank re-financings, particularly in the leisure sector. Recently Andy has acted for: Hague SR Limited in their acquisition of iCOM Printworks Ltd; Growth Partner LLP in their investment in Keelham Farm Shop; Panintelligence Limited in its £4.5m investment from YFM Equity Partners and Comhar Capital; and the management team in the management buyout of high performance computing business, OCF Limited. Clients noted Andy Francey “stands out with his logical approach to resolving complex legal matters, coupled with his personable approach and ability to deliver outstanding service on a tight time line, within the budget originally estimated." Clients have praise him for his “top-quality, speedy responses”.

Antonia Williamson

Senior Associate Antonia deals with the full spectrum of complex and privately funded family law matters. She primarily focuses on divorce and financial remedy cases (including those involving contested nuptial agreements, non-matrimonial property, overseas assets and trust structures). In addition, she regularly advises clients in relation to disputes regarding children (including cases featuring complex issues such as parental alienation, high levels of parental conflict, relocation and substance misuse). Antonia is also experienced in assisting clients with cohabitation disputes, wealth protection and injunctions.

Ateeq Ahmed

Member

Atiyya Khaliq

Partner in the real estate department at Freeths Nottingham office. Specialist areas include investment property, site assembly for commercial and residential development, commercial property development and education.

Balvinder Jaj

Partner

Ben Gant

Ben has particular experience in the care, student accommodation and minerals sectors.He advises clients on a variety of matters including real estate finance, acquisition and disposal work, property development, and landlord and tenant portfolio management. Ben won the Nottinghamshire Law Society Junior Lawyer of the Year in 2014.

Beth Jenkins

Beth regularly deals with a wide range of Real Estate Litigation issues. These include trespass/possession claims, forfeiture and termination, contested and uncontested lease renewals, service charge disputes, disrepair/dilapidations claims, break clauses, adverse possession claims, claims relating to rent review and easement and covenant disputes.

Carla Rist

Director

Caroline Wofinden

Director leading the Plots & Management team acting for national, regional and local residential and commercial property developers selling new build properties as well as acting for social housing providers in respect of shared ownership and associated work.

Carolyn Lowe

Carolyn has 23 years’ experience of bringing clinical negligence claims. She deals with all types of medical cases, but particularly specialises in representing bereaved parents in cases which involve stillbirths and neonatal deaths. She also represents children who are brain damaged as a result of negligent care during their birth. Other areas of speciality are in relation to complex orthopaedic claims and cardiac claims. Carolyn has represented numerous families of patients who have died as a result of clinical negligence. She also advises them in relation to Inquests and Coronial law. Recent settlements: (1) £8.5m for a 29 year old man who suffered severe brain damage at birth due to negligent medical care at Luton /7 Dunstable Hospital. He has cerebral palsy and requires 24 hour care. (2) Represented a woman who suffered severe damage to her shoulder as a result of a failure to diagnose and properly treat a bone infection at Milton Keynes Hospital. A settlement of £200,000 was achieved. 3) Achieved a £750,000 settlement for a man whose claim related to negligent knee surgery. This left him with severe, permanent pain and being likely to require an amputation. (4) Settlement of £500,000 for a man who has suffered permanent damage to his heart after his GP failed to deal adequately with symptoms of endocarditis, a severe infection of the heart. (5) Settlement of £480,000 for a man and his young children who lost their wife and mother as a result of negligent care by her General Practitioner

Catherine Bell

Catherine is a Director and solicitor-advocate specialising in clinical negligence, with particular expertise in complex neurological claims. She represents both children and adults who have suffered brain damage as a result of medical treatment, including children with cerebral palsy. Catherine also handles a broad range of clinical negligence claims including obstetric and gynaecological injuries, spinal injuries, visual impairment, amputations and fatal claims. Catherine has a proven track record of securing good results in complex high value cases, particularly those involving life changing injuries. She is a strong negotiator who has been praised for her confidence and conviction in fighting for the best outcome. She is recognised for ability to resolve complex issues and to successfully conclude challenging cases, including those considered too difficult by other firms. Catherine is recommended for the way she guides people through the complicated and technical legal process. She helps to secure answers and obtain the compensation to fund care and equipment that can help rebuild their lives. She is praised for her “patience and positivity” and for her supportive, empathetic approach – helping reduce the stress of litigation during what can be a difficult and emotional time. Catherine is listed as a Recommended Lawyer and recognised as a Rising Star in The Legal 500 (2024 edition), meaning she makes a material difference to the firm’s offering. Catherine is accredited as a legal panel member by AvMA, the specialist charity dealing with medical accidents, and also as a senior litigator by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). Catherine is also ranked as a Leading Individual in Chambers & Partners (2024).

Charlotte Digby

Charlotte is an Associate in the private client team. She deals with the administration of all types of estates, and has experience of dealing with larger and more complex estates including charitable estates. Charlotte advises on the preparation of Wills, Trusts, Lasting Powers of Attorney and the preparation of Declaration of Trusts. Charlotte joined the firm as a Solicitor in March 2015. She is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and is currently studying for the examination in Advanced Will Preparation. Charlotte is a member of the Freeths Oxford Initiate team and a member of the Oxford Young Professionals Society. Charlotte has been an active member of the firm’s Charity & Social committee, raising money for Freeths’ chosen charities.

Chris Ali

Partner in Manchester Office Chris been recognised as a Recommended Lawyer by Legal 500 in 2018 and 2019. He uses his experience to advise predominantly on the transactional aspects of personal and corporate insolvency, recovery and restructuring. He also runs a specialist real estate advisory practice – assisting the firm’s insolvency clients with their possession, disposal, secured lending and forensic property requirements. He also performs mainstream landlord and tenant, acquisition and disposal work. Chris holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Law from the University of Warwick.

Chris Freeston

Partner specialising in all areas of finance, particularly property and project finance. Chris is head of the firm’s banking and finance team. Recent transactions include advising the issuer on a £100m mortgage bond issue, acting for the lender on enforcement and insolvency issues relating to indebtedness of approximately £180m secured against a portfolio of properties and advising Bridges Ventures on the £84m acquisition of a portfolio of offices from Regus Plc. Chris acts for investors, developers, development agencies and a number of lenders including ICG Longbow, HSBC, RBS, and Santander.

Christopher Ainsworth

Member

Christopher Holwell

Partner and National Head of Construction, specialising in construction procurement work including building, engineering and process plant contracts. Currently advising: London Luton Airport in relation to its major expansion project; Gleeds in relation to numerous projects in the UK and overseas; developers in relation to projects including hotels, student accommodation, PRS, offices and distribution centres; contractors and specialist sub-contractors in relation to a variety of projects; a major national retailer in relation to store, distribution centre and fit-out projects; a global company in relation to highways contracts.

Christopher Sing

Partner heading up the employment law team across Freeths’ Milton Keynes and Oxford offices. Head of schools in the Freeths national education team. Specialising in all aspects of employment law with experience in both non-contentious and contentious matters. Having previously trained as a barrister, strengths include identifying and avoiding potential disputes and conducting negotiation and advocacy in the employment tribunals.

Ciara Sweeney

Ciara is an experienced real estate lawyer working on a wide range of commercial property transactions in the UK. She acts for public and private sector clients including investors, developers and occupiers – with a particular focus on development and regeneration.Ciara also has experience in acquisitions and disposals of land (from pubs and shops to development sites), title investigation, landlord and tenant matters, and all aspects of drafting and negotiating property documentation.

Ciaran Dearden

Ciaran specialises in commercial dispute resolution and has a breadth of experience including in complex contractual disputes of a technical nature, shareholder and director disputes, professional negligence and in matters of reputation management including the bringing and defending of claims in defamation.Ciaran is recognised as a leading junior lawyer, having been shortlisted by The Law Society as Junior Lawyer of the Year in 2017 and Highly Commended as a Rising Star in the Modern Law Awards in 2018.

Claire Bennett

Claire is a Senior Associate based in our Nottingham office.She specialises in Real Estate, Development and Social Housing.

Claire Boyce

Claire is a chartered tax advisor (member of the CIOT) and is based in Sheffield.

Clare Bellis

Director

Clare King

Clare is an energy lawyer with over a decade of experience in the sector. She specialises in clean energy projects and sustainability, focussing on commercial, regulatory and transactional work. She acts for developers, equity and debt investors, joint venture partners, ESCOs, energy consumers, aggregators and suppliers, supporting clients in asset evaluation, structuring, due diligence, project management, contract development and deal execution.Clare has a Natural Sciences degree from Durham University as well as a Law degree from Cambridge University. She trained at Hogan Lovells and worked in their Energy & Infrastructure team for five years post-qualification, following which she was a senior member of the Energy Projects team at Osborne Clarke before joining Freeths in September 2018.

Clive Pearce

Clive has more than ten years experience in commercial and mixed use real estate. He deals with a range of commercial real estate work, with an emphasis on complex development projects, real estate finance and regeneration acting for developers, occupiers and funds.Clive is the lead real estate lawyer for the London Borough of Newham. He has recently advised the Borough on the disposal of its shared interest in the Crystal building and acquisition of an adjoining development site from the GLA. This had a deal value in excess of £29 million.In addition he has, in the last year, acted for Guildford Borough Council on its £22.65 million acquisition of a fully tenanted office building known as Wey House in Guildford. Clive also led the real estate aspects of a £20 million debt refinancing of a large industrial portfolio for GAM International Management Limited and Zurich Assurance Limited.

Dahren Naidoo

Dahren is a partner in the Freeths corporate team based in Leeds. He specialises in all aspects of corporate work, including private equity transactions (acting for institutional investors, founder shareholders and management teams) and mergers and acquisitions (ranging from SMEs to larger corporate and institutional clients). Recently Dahren has acted for the management team on the Mobeus Equity Partners backed buy-in management buyout in Star Brand Holdings Limited; Fleetondemand Holdings Limited in their acquisition of FleetEurope; the management team on the Inflexion acquisition of Rosemont Pharmaceuticals; and the management team in Limerston Capital Partners acquisition of Forensic Access and Axiom International. Clients noted that “Dahren Naidoo thinks laterally and proactively tests and challenges the business rationale for a particular action in the context of the legal framework. He manages the project and team cost effectively and on time, and delivers sound advice in a timely fashion and acts very much as a critical friend to the business. He is very highly regarded and the ‘go-to’ corporate lawyer for M&A.”

Daniel McNally

Daniel advises corporate clients who are the subject of criminal and regulatory investigations across the Country. This includes, but is not limited to, investigations that are carried out by the Police, SFO, HSE, CQC, Trading Standards, and Local Authorities.He has over 15 years experience in criminal and regulatory law and was admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in 2012. Following a number of successful appearances before his local Courts, Daniel was awarded Young Advocate of the Year in 2013. He then joined a leading national firm, where he attained a senior appointment within 18 months, before joining Freeths in 2016.As part of his duties, Daniel represents clients who are facing allegations of corporate manslaughter and breaches of health and safety legislation as well as representing corporate bodies who appear as Interested Parties at Coroners’ Inquests.He also provides advice and assistance in relation to allegations of serious fraud, proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act, and allegations of bribery and corruption. This includes advice regarding the issue of ‘self reporting’, reviewing and drafting anti-bribery policies, and, where appropriate, negotiating for Deferred Prosecution Agreements.

Darren Debock

Darren specialises in acting for house builders, commercial developers, and landowners in connection with all aspects relating to the acquisition, site assembly and disposal of development land and brings with him a following of regional house builder clients. Darren is listed as a Recommended Lawyer and Next Generation Partner in the Legal 500 (2024 edition) in Commercial Property.

Darren Williamson

Development, investment and general property-related work of a commercial nature. Clients include a series of developers of both commercial and residential property.

David Laurence

David is a City trained real estate solicitor and his practice covers all aspects of property law. He has a proven track record of delivering high value and complicated transactions for both public and private sector clients.Before joining Freeths, David spent five years working in the Restructuring division of a major UK bank. Here, he advised on the acquisition, asset management and disposal of a £1.2 billion property portfolio covering all major asset classes.

David Marsden

David is an experienced property litigation partner based in our Birmingham office. He is the co-author of “Enforcement and Debt Recovery: a Guide to the New Law”, published by the Law Society.He specialises in all commercial and residential disputes including rights to light, possession actions, dilapidations, consent to assign/sub-let, rent disputes, property fraud and insolvency.David has recent experience in the FTT involving the appointment of a manager and in complex property fraud cases.

David Potter

Partner heading up team of employment lawyers, providing full range of legal risk management services in the employment field.

David Lane

Member

David Shakesby

Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/david-shakesby/

Deborah Harvey

Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/deborah-harvey/

Edward Pickard

Edward deals with all Real Estate litigation issues, including lease renewals, exercise of break options, easements, and covenant disputes. He has a focus on landlord-and-tenant work, particularly dilapidations disputes for both landlords and tenants. Edward has been praised for being very approachable.Whilst Edward is experienced in litigation, he prefers to work with his clients to avoid disputes reaching such a stage. Instead, he focusses on managing the issues to commercial and practical resolutions.

Emma Anderson

Director

Emma Brooksbank

Emma has been a specialist immigration practitioner for over ten years. She was most recently employed as the Head of Immigration at Simpson Millar Solicitors LLP where she oversaw a national team of immigration lawyers. Emma joined Freeths LLP in 2018 as a partner and immigration specialist. Emma can advise and assist corporate, higher education, local authority and individual clients in all areas of immigration law, policy making and business strategy. Her particular specialisms lie in advising investor and entrepreneur clients and guiding businesses and public sector bodies through the points based system and licence process to achieve the recruitment of overseas nationals. Emma advises businesses, the education and health sector on how to mitigate the impact of Brexit with a view to retaining their workforce. She also assists businesses to ensure they have strategies in place to achieve right to work compliance and to protect against the reputational and financial impact of the civil penalty regime.

Emna Sfar-Gandoura

Emna acts for real estate investors, landlords, corporate occupiers and banks. She has experience in a wide variety of real estate transactions. Emna deals with real estate acquisitions and disposals, all aspects of real estate asset management, real estate finance and real estate issues in corporate transactions. Emna is used to working closely with lawyers in other departments, as well as with her clients’ professional adviser teams in order to provide clients with a joined up and consistent approach, which enhances the whole client experience. Emna joined Freeths’ real estate team in August 2017 from her previous firm, where she was also a partner. Prior to that, Emna worked at a multinational law firm, having trained at another international law firm with offices throughout the UK, Middle East and Far East – where she spent time in the firm’s property department and in the Abu Dhabi office.

Fiona Powell

Fiona is an experienced employment specialist and acts for a diverse range of clients including those in the retail, charities and manufacturing sectors. Fiona advises on all elements of the employment relationship including business reorganisations, redundancies, strategic advice relating to exits, the TUPE Regulations, contracts of employment, employee handbooks and policies settlement agreements and manages all aspects of the Employment Tribunal litigation.

Frances McKinnon

Frances has over 10 years post qualification experience as a property lawyer, has worked in residential conveyancing, and specialises in working with developers and their new build developments.She acts for a wide range of developers including national house builders, local developers with smaller developments, bespoke exclusive developments, local authority and care home providers.Frances has experience with varying funding arrangements and government purchase schemes. She has a track record of working with smaller developers to guide them through, what may be, their first new build development process.

Francis Dalton

Francis has a broad corporate practice which includes both public and private M&A (including corporate finance, private equity and venture capital) and both main market and AIM capital markets transactions. He has experience in a blend of national and international transactions and is used to working across multiple jurisdictions with different laws.Francis also has a breadth of corporate advisory experience and has advised on a number of joint ventures, corporate and financial restructurings and securities offerings. He has operated in a number of sectors and has a focus on technology, media, communications and healthcare. He is a corporate lawyer based in our London office.

Gemma Nicholls-Webber

Gemma is a senior associate in the family team, and has specialised in financial matters and arrangements for children for over 10 years. Gemma’s work has been recognised by the Legal 500 and the high calibre of her work means she is one of their recommended ‘Next Generation’ lawyers. Her clients regularly include business owners and directors, investment property owners, academics, teachers, medical professionals, those involved in the rural sector and members of the uniformed services (such as military and police).She supports her clients with advice where they feel able to discuss matters with their former partner, either through mediation or direct conversations.Gemma believes her clients benefit from her constructive way of dealing with matters and so has been a member of Resolution (previously the Solicitors Family Law Association) since 2006. She trained at Freeths, when it was known as Henmans, both in Oxford and Woodstock, and has been with the family team in Oxford since qualification.

Gemma Bedford

Gemma works alongside Jane Williams on a wide range of cases including birth injury cases, complex orthopaedic surgical cases, sepsis and obstetric and gynaecological claims. She has over six years experience of bringing clinical negligence claims.Gemma is recommended for being approachable and helpful, helping you to feel at ease in difficult and emotional personal situations. She is dedicated to seeking answers and obtaining compensation – enabling you to pay for the care and equipment which you may require after the mismanagement of your medical treatment.She deals with all types of clinical negligence cases, but specialises in representing children with cerebral palsy and in representing families in fatal cases involving sepsis.

Gillian Roberts

Partner in real estate. Specialist areas include landlord and tenant, investment property, education and banking.

Graeme Danby

Director

Graham Greenfield

Head of commercial litigation department and also head of the insolvency unit, Graham is widely recognised as one of the East Midlands’ leading insolvency lawyers with over 26 years’ experience in this field. He has acted nationally and internationally and has complimentary experience in banking litigation. Graham frequently represents a wide portfolio of insolvency practitioner clients acting regularly for many of the larger firms of accountants as well as the quality smaller firms. Graham’s commercial litigation experience is vast, including representing clients all the way up to the Court of Appeal. He regularly deals with complex, commercial, financial and professional negligence matters and has a depth and breadth of knowledge that is commensurate with his many years of experience.

Guy Berwick

Partner & National Head of Dispute ManagementGuy has a wide-ranging experience of disputes arising out of all aspects of the built environment. He has time-served experience of managing closure of final accounts, defects and professional negligence claims, but with many years’ experience in wider commercial disputes including the demands of acting (and winning for clients) in emergency and injunctive applications.Guy prides himself on his ability to deliver the result that any client deserves quicker, cheaper and better than others in the market. His team remains the only construction group to publish its track record in adjudication work.His personal performance is: “Played 108, lost 9.” Clients who have benefited from his team’s approach include businesses within the construction, retail, logistics, materials, food and manufacturing sectors.Over 25 years’ specialist industry and sector experience have given Guy a highly developed understanding of ‘what should go where, why and when’ in relation to any construction or infrastructure project. This allows him, when any dispute or problem occurs, to get quickly to the heart of what has gone wrong, why and who is/should/could be accountable.Guy is recognised as an “Elite Leading Lawyer” in Construction by The Legal 500.

Guy Winfield

Partner and head of the Real Estate team in Nottingham specialising in commercial development (town centre, retail and industrial) as well as residential development, property investment and property finance. Guy also leads the team acting for one of the UK’s leading gym operators. “Clients comment that he provides a best in class service with the ability to respond to matters very quickly, accurately and efficiently and has a skill of thinking laterally and "outside the box" often keeping deals alive and finding solutions to problems that would otherwise make a deal not happen”

Harjit Saund

Director

Heather Davies

Partner.

Helen Jones

Helen advises both lenders and borrowers on a full range of banking matters but has particular expertise in real estate investment and development finance. She trained at Freeths and is based at our London office.

Helen Bates

Helen is a Partner of Freeths and heads up the Corporate Recovery, Insolvency and Restructuring team in the Leeds office. Helen is a well-known and highly regarded lawyer with over 18 years’ experience. Helen acts for many national and regional Insolvency Practitioners, lenders, creditors, debtors, companies, directors, business owners, guarantors and individuals, dealing with all aspects of both corporate and personal insolvency, including director disqualification proceedings. Helen undertakes both contentious and non-contentious work, regularly bringing or defending claims, advising businesses and individuals in financial distress and regularly advising the various parties to transactional matters, whether this be the seller, buyer, guarantors, funders or other parties to a transaction. Helen has conducted numerous high-profile and complex matters, including various multi-million pound transactions and court cases. Helen is known for her technical skills and her commercial and practical approach. She is often referred to as being robust, pragmatic and a “safe pair of hands” with an ability to always find a solution.

Henry Clappison

A specialist in contentious insolvency matters, Henry mainly acts for Insolvency Practitioners in bringing claims under the Insolvency Act 1986 and Companies Act 2006. These include transaction at an undervalue claims, preference claims, wrongful trading claims, unlawful dividend claims and misfeasance claims. He provides an expert legal view, but also takes into account your commercial considerations.Henry also advises directors in defending claims bought by Insolvency Practitioners and has expertise in providing directors advice with regards to the re-use of prohibited names. In addition to the above, Henry is familiar with both the bankruptcy and administration procedures and often brings claims on behalf of both trustees and administrators.

Iain Davis

Iain specialises in agricultural and rural work, acting for farmers, landowners and landed estates. He is the head of the property department as well as the agricultural and land team. Iain’s work ranges from the acquisition, development and disposal of landed estates, farms and bare agricultural land, to advice on agricultural tenancies, farm business tenancies, and environmental matters. He specialises in the drafting and negotiation of strategic land option and promotion agreements. Recent/significant transactions include: option agreement for over 195 acres of farmland to a national house builder; promotion agreement over 215 acres of farm land on the edge of Thame; hybrid agreement for an Oxford College for over 400 dwellings; option agreements for 85 and 69 acres in relation to a proposed urban extension to a major settlement; sale of greenfield site with the benefit of a residential planning permission for £5.5m; the acquisition of the Kiddington Estate for a sum in excess of £23m; acquisition of a complex and diverse 480 acre unregistered landed estate in Wales, contracts were exchanged within one month of instructions being received; sale of land in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park for development of a Centre Parcs style holiday village; purchase of brownfield site for development of a 27 unit commercial business park; sale of greenfield site for development by major landed estate client with complex uplift provisions, the sale was by way of contract race with exchange of contracts taking place within 24 hours of issue of papers; grants of options and leases of wind farm and solar parks.

Ian Rowson

Partner in real estate development, dealing primarily with commercial property development and property finance for a range of developers, financial and educational institutions end users and public sector bodies and advising in relation to distressed property transactions. Notable transactions this year have included: advising Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in relation to a highly complex development agreement relating to an extension to the Touchwood Shopping Centre; advising a developer in relation to the purchase of a 200 acre estate from an administrator; advising Loughborough University in relation to a complex deal to take place at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

Ian Tempest

Partner specialising in property development and construction, acting for developers, contractors, commercial end users and other professionals involved in the construction industry.

Imogen Randall

Imogen has over 8 years’ experience in high value and complex dispute resolution. She manages clients’ disputes at an early stage and advises on various methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution, as a cost effective means of resolving commercial and professional negligence disputes.Imogen has extensive expertise in acting for clients in the High Court, including the specialist Mercantile Court and the Technology and Construction Court. She has also advised on a number of complex funding and insurance options in hedging litigation risk.

Irpreet Kohli

Partner Irpreet is a highly regarded specialist family lawyer in the family wealth team in Freeths’ London office. Irpreet joined the team to head and grow the London family law offering, bringing with her 15 years’ experience of working at a regional UK firm and an international focussed firm to provide an all-round and broad family law service to Freeths’ clients. Irpreet’s caseload is broad and varied including negotiating financial settlements in divorces from modest asset cases to HNW divorces involving worldwide assets in excess of £20m; advising on arrangements for children including internal and overseas relocation; assisting with wealth preservation through prenuptial and postnuptial settlements including arranging international mirror agreements where required; advising on the impact of religious and overseas marriage and divorces, such as nikahs and talaqs on UK proceedings. Recent cases of note include Advising on a divorcing couple involving family wealth including a property portfolio comprising of 20 residential and commercial units. The proceedings involved an extended family intervention where family members claimed a beneficial interest in the rental units. Total matrimonial assets were in the region of £20m and were resolved following complicated and acrimonious multi party proceedings involving the UK as well as overseas accounts and property assets. A number of intervention matters, including cases where she has defended against the intervention of family members into divorce proceedings in which she represents either H or W and also an attempt to join a client’s company into divorce proceedings as an intervener. Advising on Part III MFPA 1984 proceedings (financial provision after an overseas divorce) where parties are already divorced abroad and are seeking to make further claims against UK assets. Clients describe Irpreet as “the perfect solicitor to have on your team” saying that she “adopts a common sense approach to all matters and approaches negotiations pragmatically, sensitively and efficiently.” Ideal for this area of law, Irpreet is “approachable and honest in her advice but similarly takes no nonsense if the situation requires it. She will tell it like it is and then come up with a strategy to best meet your objectives.”

Isobel Radford

Specialist areas: landlord and tenant, investment property, banking and education. Recent significant deals include: sale of investment properties in London valued at a total of £50m; dealing with the property aspects of a complex data centre services agreement; acquisition of an office park for redevelopment as a data centre site; several high-value refinancing transactions, acting for both banks and borrowers; dealing with a group reorganisation for a retail client involving the transfer of 50 freehold and leasehold properties. Clients include a number of corporate occupiers, national retailers, a data centre provider, a university and a number of banks.

Jade Flint

After training at a niche litigation practice, Jade joined the firm in 2014. She works within the Commercial Litigation department and Insolvency Unit in Nottingham, under the supervision of Graham Greenfield (the head of both departments).Jade acts on behalf of both claimants and defendants in a range of civil matters, including claims of professional negligence and breach of contract. Jade has particular expertise acting in relation to claims arising out of transactions undertaken prior to bankruptcy or liquidation. Jade regularly acts for Insolvency Practitioners and individuals in connection with these matters.

James Hartley

Litigation and arbitration partner, with a focus on high-value and ‘high stakes’ matters. Currently handling a number of significant cases, including a major Group Action, several high value finance/banking litigation cases, competition litigation and professional negligence cases. He regularly advises commercial clients on complex litigation risk management solutions, including funding and risk transfer/insurance. He is well respected in the London litigation funding market.

James Cowell

Director

James Dyson

Corporate.James specialises in advising funders and borrowers on banking and debt restructuring transactions. He is regularly involved in complex structured finance and corporate lending transactions, including leveraged buy-outs and general commercial lending.James acts for many of the major banks and financial institutions in the UK, private equity houses and corporate borrowers.

James Berry

. James leads the Dispute Resolution team at Freeths’ Sheffield office which prides itself on building long-term client relationships by being outcome-driven and providing commercial and pragmatic advice. James advises a diverse range of clients with a particular focus on the manufacturing, construction and technology sectors. He deals with a wide variety of commercial disputes including complex IT issues, shareholder disputes, enforcement of restrictive covenants, claims arising from the sale and purchase of businesses, warranty claims, professional negligence claims and commercial contract disputes. The Legal 500 recognises that he “works stupendously hard and is clever and easy to work with“. James has extensive experience of dealing with High Court litigation particularly in the context of handling interim injunction applications, unfair prejudice proceedings and high value/commercially sensitive contractual disputes. He is an active proponent of alternative dispute resolution including mediation, expert determination and negotiation and has experience of dealing with international claims involving companies who are based overseas including Australia, India, Pakistan, France and the US, dealt with through court proceedings and arbitration. He has considerable experience of working with senior board members of companies across SMEs, PLCs, AIM and Fortune 500 – with a proven track record of success and particular emphasis on client care and delivering a high quality service.

James Clamp

Partner

James Hart

Property development with particular emphasis on major projects. In recent years James has acted in some of the largest urban regeneration projects in the country, including in Solihull, Leeds, Derby and Greater London. In acting for private residential and commercial developers, public authorities, funders and housing associations James has developed a holistic understanding of major project and development work and regularly advises upon joint venture and structural agreements, site assembly, development agreements, overage, conditional contracts and options, infrastructure and funding arrangements. Recent projects include: major schemes to regenerate 1970s housing stock in Solihull and Greater London; the £70m extension of Touchwood Shopping Centre for the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull; and a large-scale transfer of New Town legacy assets from the HCA to Milton Keynes Council, in which James headed the 25-strong project team representing the Council and its LLP subsidiary which acquired the majority of the assets in a pioneering use of local authority-controlled companies. James is also advising Bedford Borough Council on several significant development and disposal projects in the borough along with existing clients such as Halton Borough Council, Bassetlaw District Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and the London Borough of Havering on a range of property acquisition, management and disposal projects. For Derby City Council he has advised on the property aspects of a major, 30-year LLP joint venture proposed to be entered into with a private sector partner to transform a deprived inner-city neighbourhood through housing regeneration, and for the past ten years James has been closely advising Bellway Homes Limited in the highly successful public-private housing regeneration scheme covering four wards in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull.

James Larmour

Partner with over ten years experience of advising on a number of complex and innovative infrastructure and project finance transactions, including a number of PFIs, PPPs, joint ventures, outsourcing and M&A deals across a diverse range of sectors, both within the UK and overseas. James has particular experience in the health sector and in secondary market PFI transactions. Clients include Amber Infrastructure, International Public Partnerships, Transmission Capital Partners, Calvin Capital and Care UK.

Jane Maitland

Jane advises on wealth preservation through estate, succession and tax planning for farming, agricultural, landed and business clients through wills and trusts acting for UK-based and non-resident clients. She deals with complex estate administrations; private and charitable trusts; literary estates and Court of Protection work. Jane also acts as an independent administrator appointed by the Court in estates where there are family disputes and legal claims. Her work includes: trustee of multimillion pound trust holding a wide range of assets including commercial property, woodland, publicly and privately quoted shares; executor of a landed estate including agricultural and residential properties, agricultural land, animals, and personal chattels subject to conditional exemption from inheritance tax; advising the partners of a farming business in the exercise of an option to purchase a deceased’s partner’s share maximising the use of tax reliefs; creating, managing and dissolving trusts of shares in private limited companies; estate planning for farming partners grazing sheep and raising poultry, a farm shop, horses and holiday lets; deputy appointed by the Court of Protection to manage the affairs of clients incapable of managing their own financial affairs by reason of age infirmity or accident; managing multimillion pound clinical negligence awards on behalf of children or adults suffering brain injury; acting as independent administrator in contested estates; clerk to private charitable trust.

Jane Williams

Partner advising on clinical negligence and catastrophic injury claims with particular expertise in brain and spinal injury claims. Jane is head of department and has more than 24 years experience of bringing clinical negligence claims. She has an active practice dealing with cases of maximum severity including spinal, neurological and birth injury clinical negligence claims. She also has a strong track record in misdiagnoses of cancer and epilepsy having co-ordinated two high profile group actions. She is renowned for her friendly and sympathetic approach putting her clients at ease from the outset.Jane’s aim is always to do the best for her clients and to take away the stress of bringing a claim at what is often a difficult and emotional time. She advocates a team approach and her clients are always involved and integral to this.Testimonials:“A warm heartfelt thank you for your support, dedication and hard graft over the last 5 years. Your professionalism has assured our daughter got what she deserved, a secure future with superb living standards and care team. You are a credit to your profession”. “Just wanted to say a very big thank you for all your help over these past few very emotional years ... we are so grateful for the way you have handled everything putting us at ease and getting the best for our son. You have truly been so nice, kind and friendly, it has been lovely knowing you!” “Jane has always been professional, thorough, helpful, kind and friendly and every time we have met or spoken put us at ease”. “We are extremely grateful to Jane for all her hard work and support on our behalf ... we are indebted for everything you have done for us as a family”.

Jane Goulding

Head of PI team; partner dealing with personal injury (claimant) specialising in serious injury claims, particularly brain injury and spinal cord injury claims.

Jennie McBride

Jennie has over 15 years experience in our Private Client team since before qualifying as a solicitor. She now mainly deals with the preparation of Wills and Powers of Attorney for many individuals, also advising on inheritance tax, estate planning and other elderly client matters. Jennie is very client focused and will always have the client’s interest as her main concern.

Jennifer Roe

Jennifer is a Planning lawyer within the Real Estate team, based at our office in London. She deals with all aspects of planning law with a particular expertise in strategic advice, Section 106 agreements and planning appeals.

Jill Carey

Director

Joanne Thomas

Joanne has specialised in all aspects of Family Law since qualifying in 2012, developing a particular expertise in advising on marital agreements, divorce, cohabitation disputes and financial matters arising from the breakdown of a relationship. She regularly advises on cases involving family businesses, inherited wealth and complex legal issues.Whether advising on financial matters or disputes involving children, Joanne is dedicated to providing clear, pragmatic advice, which enables her clients to achieve the best, long-term solution.As a member of Resolution, a national organisation of professionals committed to the constructive resolution of family disputes, Joanne advocates resolving family issues as amicably and cost-effectively as possible, particularly where children are involved. However, it is not always possible to resolve family issues without involving the Court. Where contested court proceedings are instigated, Joanne is highly experienced in advising and supporting clients through the legal process.

Joey Byrne

Joey is national head of restructuring and insolvency at Freeths. His particular speciality is contentious insolvency matters and, in particular, asset recovery.

John Heaphy

Head of banking and finance division specialising in all aspects of corporate finance and banking; recent deals include: negotiating and advising the Lloyds Bank acquisition finance team on providing senior debt facilities on the ISIS equity partners backed MBO of Impetus Automotive. Advising shareholders of Gyron Internet Ltd on the sale of 85% of the shares of Gyron Internet Ltd. Advising the sellers on the sale of Viaton Industries. Advising Merlin labels on the acquisition of Labelsco from MSO.

John Kelly

An experienced dispute lawyer, John specialises in complex construction defects cases, including dealing with matters of professional negligence. He also has significant experience in bringing and defending construction adjudications on matters of termination, payment, extension of time and defects. John has growing experience with international construction disputes. He has been involved within the construction industry since leaving school in 1982, until re-training as a solicitor in 2000 focusing solely on construction law. John’s in-depth sector knowledge is a significant advantage in assessing a client’s position. It allows John to work efficiently with his clients and enables him to obtain a quick grasp on the issues to be resolved. John is frequently brought in to assist on problem projects to help guide the project team, protecting a client’s position against a back drop of a live contract.

John May

Member specialising in claims and procurement construction work, including building, engineering and power and process plant contracts; currently advising a number of major contractors, sub-contractors and professional consultants on a variety of projects; significant experience of major mechanical and electrical engineering projects and traditional building contracts.

Jon Smart

Partner, real estate notably heading the care sector team. Wide range of landowner funder and occupier focused transactions and development work for clients including Eddie Stobart, LNT Group, Scotch Corner Designer Village, and Lloyds Bank.

Jonathan Hambleton

Jonathan heads Freeths’ corporate team in Milton Keynes where he has gained a reputation for his commercial and client focused approach to transactions. His expertise covers M&As, MBOs, joint ventures and corporate restructuring as well as banking and finance. His team has handled some highly complex and substantial deals, providing expert input on funding and structuring of transactions.

Jonathan Crew

Jonathan is a partner in the Real Estate team in Leeds. He has wide ranging specialist knowledge in all aspects of Commercial Real Estate. His work includes property portfolio management for large national retailers, dealing with largescale investment acquisitions and disposals and commercial development projects often involving complex overage/profit sharing arrangements.

Julian Middleton

National Head of Employment, Pensions and Immigration.A highly specialised lawyer, Julian specialises in the ever-changing world of employment law. His main focus is on proactive risk reduction through the client’s internal skill development and the production of a commercial approach to human resource and managing people.Clients include:Aldi Stores Ltd;2 Sisters Food Group Ltd;British Psychological Society;British Dieticians AssociationDe Montfort UniversityEast Midlands Business LtdOakham SchoolThe Royal Air Forces AssociationThe Chairman and Directors of Leicester City Football ClubThe Chairman of Derby County FCDerby County FCJohn GregoryJulian advises businesses on implementing strategies for creating modern workplaces and delivering the most productive and engaged workforce. This is achieved through internal management training; planning and implementing reorganisations, collective consultations and individual case-handling. Always focussing on securing the best possible commercial outcomes, and maximising financial and reputational gain.During his career at Freeths, Julian has helped take it from a £2m turnover single-office solicitors practice into the circa £80m turnover 12 city law firm it is today. He has been Managing Partner of the Leicester Office, Managing Partner of the Head Office in Nottingham and National Head of the Employment, Pensions and Immigration Team.Julian is one of the few solicitors identified by Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession as an Eminent Practitioner.

Julie Grimble

Director

Karen Reynolds

Partner specialising in clinical negligence claims for claimants; particular interest in obstetric claims; recommended in ‘Chambers’.

Karl Jansen

Partner and head of corporate dealing with acquisitions, disposals and mergers, private equity transactions, management buy-outs and buy-ins, restructuring and refinancing.

Katherine Burge

Katherine is a key member of a highly regarded agricultural property team acting for a range of individuals, business and landed estates in respect of a variety of property matters and transactions.Katherine has previously broadened her experience and skillset whilst working for one of the country’s leading residential development teams representing a number of the major house builders in the UK.

Katie England

Katie has experience in advising a wide variety of clients including corporate occupiers, institutional landlords, local authorities, and other public bodies. She offers legal advice on acquisitions, disposals, asset management and general property holding.Katie’s experience spans public and private sectors on assets including offices, retail, industrial and healthcare properties.

Katie Hillier

Katie joined Freeths in March 2014. Previously Katie worked in the London office of an international law firm.Katie has a broad range of experience of finance transactions, with a particular interest in real estate investment and development finance. She also has experience of Islamic compliant financing structures and has advised strategically in relation to loan restructuring and work outs.

Kevin Poulter

Kevin is a partner in the employment team and works from the London office.He has a wealth of experience in advising a broad range of commercial and corporate clients, charities, not for profit organisations and senior executive employees on all aspects of the employment relationship, both contentious and non-contentious.Kevin is the host of The Hearing, a popular legal podcast produced by Thomson Reuters. He is a regular contributor on employment and social media issues to local and national press and a regular guest on Vanessa Feltz’s BBC London show. He has featured in the Guardian, City AM and The Sunday Times as well as professional and trade journals including The Lawyer, Legal Week, Law Society Gazette and Times Higher Education.

Kevin Pinkerton

Partner and qualified insolvency practitioner dealing with all aspects of corporate recovery and insolvency with a particular focus on non-contentious work arising out of administrations. Advises insolvency practitioners, directors, creditors and individuals on a wide range of issues arising from financial distress.

Kim Jones

Director

Kirstin Roberts

Kirstin is a Chartered Waste Manager with the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Midlands Representative to the CIWM Members Council and Secretary of the Midlands Centre Council of CIWM. She is an experienced commercial lawyer of 23 years standing, who has worked with businesses in the Waste and Renewables sector for over 15 years, including two 6-month secondments with FCC Environmental (one of the UK’s biggest Waste companies). Kirstin advises companies at all levels of the industry, advising on disputes and agreements in connection with EfW plants, reviewing and negotiating publicly procured contracts such as collections or treatment agreements with localauthorities, advising on offtaker arrangements, feedstock arrangements, haulage agreements, and advice in connection with Combined Heat and Power plants. Having also spent over 2 years as Head of Legal at an Internet & Telecoms plc, she is therefore, used to working with Ops Boards and in-house lawyers, operating as one of the in-house team.

Kishan Pattni

Kishan is an expert in IP and Media law. He leads the firm’s service offering for brands and private individuals on Reputation Protection. This includes key areas such as defamation, privacy, breach of personal data, image rights and online harassment. His specialism covers pre-publication advice and strategy, bespoke reputation protection audits and consultancy, through to providing solutions for all reputation related disputes. He is particularly skilled in solving problems arising through online publications including on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.In relation to IP, Kishan has substantial experience in advising on the creation, management, exploitation and protection of Intellectual Property rights, including trade marks, rights in passing off, copyright, registered and unregistered design rights, patents, confidential information and trade secrets. His practice includes the drafting and negotiation of all IP and reputation related contracts including non-disclosure agreements and undertakings aimed at protecting confidential and private information.

Kishen Ravalia

Director – Real Estate. Kishen has been qualified for over 12 years and has a considerable breadth of experience in all aspects of real estate work including landlord and tenant matters and real estate finance. He has a particular specialism in dealing with complex development and development finance matters. Recent transactions include: Advising a developer in connection with the forward sale of a £63m PRS scheme Advising a funder on its forward funding of a new £6m hotel development. Advising an investor in connection with the acquisition and disposal of a residential development site for the construction of 52 dwellings. Advising the land owner in connection with a hybrid promotion and option agreement to promote land for a predominantly residential development scheme.

Laura Brown

Laura has wide experience dealing with a broad range of real estate property matters. She handles acquisitions and disposals of freehold and leasehold properties, investment property, development with construction aspects, commercial landlord and tenant matters and real estate finance. Laura’s clients range from SMEs to large corporate organisations, LLPs, partnerships, financial institutions, the public sector and a number of exempt and non-exempt charities.

Lee Clifford

Lee has extensive experience in advising companies, institutional investors and management teams in the structuring, negotiation and financing of purchases and sales. Lee’s particular specialist area is private equity transactions. Lee’s clients include LDC, Maven Private Equity and Finance Birmingham. Lee has recently acted for LDC on their investment to support the management buy out of Forest Holidays, advised on the Investor buy out by Inflextion Private Equity of CTC Aviation. Lee also advised Maven Private Equity on its investment in Lawrence Recycling and Waste Management and advised the management team of Halfords when on the management buy out, supported by CVC.

Leo Skinner

Head of the firm’s drinks hospitality and leisure specialist department. The drinks hospitality and leisure department is the only completely industry sector focussed offer in the UK to our knowledge. The department acts for many of the leading names in the drinks, pubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and late night sectors as well as leisure and gaming clients. The department is supported with specialist licensing services from the firm’s Leicester office and also benefits from the full service offer including real estate, employment, IT/trade marks, commercial, corporate finance, tax, construction and planning.

Leon Arnold

Leon is head of the corporate team and has over 20 years’ experience of advising the corporate sector. Recent projects include: Advising the selling shareholders of Two Circles Limited on their disposal to WPP group; advising the Würth Group on its UK acquisitions and disposals; advising the selling shareholders of JGA Limited in its sale to Jensen Hughes, Inc; advising the selling shareholders on the sale of Moo Ltd (trading as Preloved) to the Hut Group PLC; advising the management team in the buy-out of the Bath printing business of Communisis PLC and subsequent acquisitions for the newly formed Integrity Print Limited; advising exiting shareholders on the sale of Sleek to Walgreens Boots Alliance; and advising on the acquisition by Santova Limited (South Africa) of Tradeway North West Limited and Tradeway (Shipping) Limited.

Lindsey Clegg

Partner

Lisa Mark-Bell

Director

Lisa Wallis

Lisa works in Freeths’ Sheffield corporate team and advises on a range of corporate and commercial law. Her expertise includes share sales, asset sales, MBIs, MBOs, company restructuring, loan and investment arrangements, joint ventures, partnership arrangements and a range of commercial agreements including distribution agreements, supply of goods and services agreements and service level agreements.Lisa deals with a range of clients in various sectors, including manufacturing, engineering and technology, from local SMEs to larger corporate and national clients.

Lisa Gilligan

Licensing.Lisa is a highly experienced regulatory solicitor and advocate. She specialises in licensing and in broader complimentary regulatory areas including Health & Safety, Trading Standards and Food Safety/Labelling.Lisa is an accomplished advocate, regularly appearing before a wide range of tribunals including Magistrates Courts and licensing committees nationwide.She also acts for local authorities in relation to regulatory prosecutions, appearing at Magistrates Courts on their behalf. Acting for local authorities in this way to provide advocacy support allows Lisa unique and valuable experience of both sides of the enforcement fence.Lisa is recognised as an “Elite Leading Lawyer” in Licensing by The Legal 500.

Liz Banks

Liz is a real estate partner based in our Leeds office. Her extensive expertise spans a variety of areas from commercial development, fund management and investment, landlord and tenant work and acquisitions and disposals.Liz is recommended by the Legal 500 for local government work.

Liz Young

Liz is an RTPI Chartered Town Planner with over 5 years planning experience in the private sector. Liz joined Freeths as a Graduate Planner in 2012 and qualified as a Chartered Planner in 2015.As a result, Liz is recognised as having a strong understanding of the legislative framework within which the planning system operates and is able to practically apply this to client’s queries regarding their developments.Liz deals with a broad scale and range of planning applications in the retail, commercial and residential planning sectors. She provides strategic planning advice, undertakes specific site appraisals and deals with the submission of Local Plan representations as well as managing the preparation and submission of a wide range of applications and appeals.She also has recent and up to date experience of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), Listed Building Consents, Prior Approval Applications, Housing Land Supply Calculations and CIL mitigation advice.

Louise Wilson

Partner

Louise Lewis

Louise is a Partner and joint head of the Oxford Trusts, Estates and Tax Team. She is a highly regarded private client lawyer who advises on a variety of matters. Louise qualified in 2005 and joined our firm from Penningtons Manches Cooper in June 2019. Louise drafts Wills, sets up and administers trusts, administers estates and drafts and registers powers of attorney. She has expertise in the field of mental capacity and advises on disabled persons’ trusts, deputyships for children reaching adulthood and other welfare-related issues. She prepares lasting powers of attorney and Wills for clients with mental capacity issues and complex applications to the Court of Protection and High Court for mentally incapacitated people. These include applications for statutory Wills, for gifts and trusts, for removal of incapacitated trustees and for welfare decisions. Louise is the Deputy Chair of the steering committee for STEP’s mental capacity special interest group and she Chaired a session on mental capacity and welfare issues at STEP’s global congress in London in summer 2022. She regularly speaks on mental capacity topics and has presented for the Brain Injury Association and the Alzheimer’s Society among others. Louise is a Dementia Friend. In 2020, she completed an advanced STEP certificate in advising vulnerable clients, receiving a distinction. In addition, Louise is a member of the firm’s private wealth initiative and is able to provide advice to business clients on estate planning at all stages of the business cycle. This includes tax advice and trusts for people exiting their businesses, advice on Wills and the interaction of Wills with corporate structures, advice on suitable structures for start-up owners and new partnerships and advice on trusts to hold company shares. Louise also administers business interests following death of business owners and advises on available tax reliefs for estates. Louise has considerable experience of working with international clients and advises on residence and domicile and cross border estate planning. In June 2023, Louise completed an advanced STEP certificate in UK tax for international clients, receiving a distinction.

Luke Dixon

Partner Luke advises businesses from start-ups to blue chips on the privacy aspects of a wide range of matters including commercial and IT agreements, projects and transactions. He regularly advises clients on how to respond to data breaches and to data subject rights requests, as well as digital marketing compliance.

Luke Hopkins

Luke advises clients on a variety of matters, including acquisition and disposal, portfolio management and development. Luke’s clients range from high net worth individuals and SMEs to large corporate organisations and institutional investors. Luke is a specialist in real estate finance and advises both lenders and borrowers on all aspects of investment and development debt finance across all asset classes, including residential, commercial, retail, industrial, healthcare, student accommodation, hotels and care homes. Luke has a strong reputation amongst his clients for transaction management and in particular for responding promptly to any issues that arise and providing pragmatic, commercial, client-focused advice.

Lynne Foster

Lynne is a lawyer who has specialised in clinical negligence for over 14 years. She deals with all types of medical cases but particularly specialises in cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics and general surgery. Lynne has a special interest in fatal claims involving both children and adults. She is accredited by the Law Society as a clinical negligence specialist.Lynne often represents the interests of bereaved families at inquests, particularly where the deceased died in hospital or following medical treatment/surgery. She covers a variety of Coroner’s Courts around the country. Lynne has often assisted the families to recover compensation following the inquest.

Malin Svanberg Larsson

Malin specialises in advising businesses on a wide range of corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, management buy-ins and buy-outs, corporate reorganisations and restructurings, and early stage investment.She acts for clients across a range of sectors including technology, manufacturing and consultancy. Malin is a corporate lawyer, well regarded for her highly attentive and solutions-orientated approach.

Mark Neale

Partner

Mark Brown

Mark is a highly experienced litigator specialising in the leisure sector. He has acted for over 11 years on property litigation matters for major pub, restaurant, bar, late night venue and hotel owners and operators.Most recently Mark has been advising those in the pub sector on the major issues affecting it.

Mark Gradwell

Partner specialising in investment property, landlord and tenant, NHS and other healthcare property. Dealt with acquisitions and disposals for local authority pension funds with a combined value exceeding £100m during 2014.

Mark Keeley

Partner in charge of private litigation unit; the unit covers a range of civil disputes for private clients, but specialises in contested trust and probate disputes; caseload comprises high-value contested probate and trust disputes including IPFDA 1975 claims, will disputes, contested court of protection proceedings and related professional negligence claims against other solicitors. Mark is also a qualified commercial mediator and regularly mediates contested trust and probate disputes.

Matt Fraser

Matt has experience of acting for a range of clients in contentious and non-contentious employment matters. Matt provides advice on topics including disciplinary and grievance investigations, long term employee absence, TUPE, redundancy procedures and settlement agreements.He works with clients to draft effective employment contracts and procedures that are suited to the specific needs of the employer organisation. He also regularly provides bespoke training to managers and HR departments on a wide range of employment related topics.

Matt Stephens

A real estate partner, Matt has a broad practice including development, investment, and secured lending work.He has a focus on landlord and tenant matters and particularly the retail sector, in which he has been operating for the past 7 years. Matt’s clients range from well known high street and supermarket retailers, to international operators entering into the UK market, to major UK banks. Matt’s recent deals include: Act for Aldi on their acquisition programme in the South East of England. This includes the acquisition of existing retail space and developer-led retail park sites and there have been a significant number of sites secured over the past 3 years. Act for high street bank on various property finance lending into the UK market Act for high street retailers on their UK acquisitions and portfolio management Act for a leading international pizza delivery operator on its UK acquisitions and management. Act for a London based mixed used developer specialising in commercial and residential schemes including site acquisition and disposals both of individual units to occupiers and complete developments to funds.. Taken space for various restaurant operators in and around central London including Borough Market, Covent Garden and Notting Hill. Act on all commercial disposals of major new mixed use development in Islington. Act for US tech retail & services company on their initial entry into UK market. Acted for authority on £20M+ investment purchase in London.

Matt McBride

Partner in the employment department. Acts for a range of employer clients in the public and private sector. All aspects of employment law, including: tribunal representation and advocacy, designing and delivering training sessions, and senior executive terminations.

Matthew Switzer

A 2 year PQE tax solicitor who, having passed the Chartered Tax Adviser examinations in January 2017, specialises in all UK tax aspects of corporate and property transactions.Matthew has experience in completing personal income tax returns for high net worth individuals and resolving tax disputes with HMRC.

Maxine Chenoweth

Maxine is a commercial lawyer with significant experience in a broad range of Real Estate matters.She has experience dealing with a variety of clients including granting and taking leases, acquisitions and disposals, development, retail, joint ventures and property portfolio management.

Melanie Williams

Melanie is appointed as a professional property and affairs deputy in the Court of Protection for those with dementia, learning disabilities and acquired brain injury. This role involves taking responsibility for the financial assets of someone who lacks the capacity to make decisions for themselves. Melanie provides advice and support to lay deputies about their ongoing responsibilities. She can advise and assist with property and affairs applications, welfare applications deputyship returns and damages award management. She frequently makes applications to the Court of Protection for a statutory will where somebody cannot make their own will; instructions are taken, often from the deputy or a family member, and a draft of a proposed will is sent to the Court of Protection for approval. Representations may be made to Court by those who will be affected by the new will. Where possible, if all parties can agree, the matter can be concluded without the need for an attended hearing at Court. Melanie also deals with the drafting and administration of personal injury trusts including High Court approved trusts for injured children. She has a special interest in NHS Continuing Healthcare matters and represents clients going through the assessment process. She recently worked with a team of professionals to secure funding for a client with an acquired brain injury, living in her own home, where a primary health need could be evidenced. Where NHS funding is not available, Melanie advises on whether an application should be made for local authority funding. She recently pursued funding for a client which resulted in Social Services agreeing to pay for a package of care worth £6,000 per month and reimbursing fees of £120,000 already paid.

Michaela Mason

Michaela specialises in acting for institutional investors and landlords (including local authority pension funds, company pension funds and FTSE100 property companies).She acts on the acquisition, disposal, financing and management of multi-let properties including mixed use properties, shopping centres and out of town retail parks.

Mike Gilmour

Partner and office head of insolvency department. Specialising in corporate and personal insolvency acting for funders, insolvency practitioners and corporates.

Miles Hacking

Miles deals with all aspects of corporate and personal insolvency, acting in respect of a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious issues. He acts for both national and regional insolvency practitioners as well as company directors, debtors and creditors.In terms of personal insolvency, Miles regularly advises and acts in respect of Possession and Sale Applications, Income Payments Orders, Suspension of Discharge from Bankruptcy Applications, Delivery up and Examination Orders, Transaction at Undervalue, Preference and Excessive Pension Contribution Claims, Bankruptcy Petitions and Annulment Applications.Miles’ corporate insolvency experience includes acting in respect of Administrations, Appointment, Business and asset sales/purchases, Post Appointment Advice, Liquidations, Office holder investigations, Delivery up and Examination Orders, Antecedent Transaction Claims, and Winding Up Petitions.

Mitchell Ball

Partner, dealing with commercial property and property finance. Focus and specialism on retail development work. Dealing with a large number of site acquisitions for major supermarket.

Mona Schroedel

Mona qualified in 2008 and has wide-ranging experience in acting for private clients and commercial clients. She has expertise in contentious probate and trust disputes, professional negligence claims, property claims, web fraud claims, and commercial matters.Mona is always keen to explore alternative solutions for clients and has experience of mediation as well as arbitration. Mona deals with all types of will disputes and claims over lifetime gifts, often involving lack of testamentary capacity and/or undue influence. She has experience of trust disputes acting for trustees in multimillion pound estates.Clients like the clear and structured advice Mona provides and private clients appreciate the sympathetic manner in which Mona assists them through often very difficult cases (both emotionally and legally). Clients can rely on receiving a detailed and easy to understand explanation of the law from Mona and having their options set out for comparison.

Natalie Dickson

Partner Natalie is well known as a family specialist in the North West dealing with a wide range of family law matters. She deals predominantly with divorce, financial settlements on divorce and arrangements for children. Natalie is known for her calm and pragmatic approach. She specialises in advising and representing a range of clients but particularly those with complex asset bases, sports and media personalities, owners of landed estates with inherited and dynastic wealth, business owners, directors, lottery winners, members of the judiciary and other professionals. Natalie’s specialism is complex Financial Remedy proceedings. She is known to be a pragmatist and straight talker who can get to the crux of a matter quickly. Natalie also advises families and wealthy individuals on wealth protection agreements including pre-nups, post-nups and cohabitation agreements. Natalie’s work includes private children matters (including a specialism in internal and international relocation in the High Court), financial provision for children under Schedule 1 Children Act and dealing with property disputes arising from the breakdown of cohabiting relationships. Natalie takes a proactive and pragmatic approach. She focuses on negotiated settlements and joint settlement meetings where appropriate, provides legal support alongside mediation and arbitration, and representation at Court where necessary.

Natalie Drought

With a primary focus on corporate sales and acquisitions, Natalie acts for limited company clients on a broad range of company law matters including corporate governance, shareholder agreements, and restructures.Natalie also has experience advising in connection with a variety of commercial agreements including joint venture agreements, distribution agreements, and supply agreements from both a supplier and purchaser perspective.

Natasha Molloy

Partner and Head of Court of Protection (Nottingham) Natasha is a highly experienced professional deputy who has acted for hundreds of clients who lack capacity to manage their own property and affairs. She deals with all types of cases but primarily specialises in acquired brain injury, representing both adults and children who lack capacity as a result of personal injury or clinical negligence. Her clients also include those with mental health issues, learning difficulties and birth injuries.

Navada Ward

Navada works in the Court of Protection department.She has acted for numerous clients as an Attorney managing their property and financial affairs. She has a keen interest in protecting those who are vulnerable and lack the capacity to manage their affairs.

Nichola Faith

Nichola Faith is a Director based at our Leeds office. She specialises in construction disputes.

Nigel Gardner

Partner

Nigel Cullen Obe Td Dl

Partner dealing with wills, trusts, probate and inheritance tax planning.

Nigel Roots

Nigel has been a specialist trust and estate practitioner for over 30 years. He has experience of estate administrations of all sizes and complexities, both domestic and international. This covers tax and trust planning, trust management and modification both onshore and offshore, complex estate administrations, literary estates, heritage property, charity issues and court of protection issues. These include disputed, high value and multi asset estates. He acts as a Court appointed independent administrator and Judicial Trustee in disputed trust and probate matters. He also lectures widely on tax and trust matters Nigel is listed as a Recommended Lawyer and recognised as a Leading Individual in Charities & Not-for-profit as well as for personal tax, trusts and probate by the Legal 500 (2023 edition). The Chambers & Partners (2023 edition) listed Nigel as a Leading Individual and he’s recognised in the Chambers High Net Worth Ranking (2023 edition).

Oliver Jackson

Oliver Jackson heads up a five-strong Insolvency and Restructuring team in Sheffield. Oliver has over 15 years of experience advising on a broad range of Insolvency and Restructuring matters. Oliver’s clients include insolvency practitioners, creditors, company directors and individuals from a variety of sectors. Oliver’s recent work includes advising on a number of pre-pack administrations, corporate restructurings, liquidations and the sale of company assets by insolvency practitioners. Oliver advises on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious insolvency matters including antecedent transaction claims by insolvency practitioners, ROT and set-off matters, director’s duties and landlord and tenant insolvency issues.

Patrick Adie

Patrick is an experienced Partner in our Residential Development Team. He specialises in large residential-led schemes and acts for national house builders, developers, housing associations, contractors, promoters and estate owners. He also has significant experience on all types of real estate transactions including mixed-use developments, investment transactions, finance/funding and social housing. He known for being commercially focused, highly responsive and working collaboratively with all those involved on transactions to find pragmatic solutions. Patrick is a former recipient of the ‘Junior Lawyer of the Year’ award, chosen by the Nottinghamshire Law Society.

Patrick Whetter

Patrick specialises in many aspects of commercial property with particular expertise in commercial landlord and tenant, freehold acquisitions and disposals, developing out sites and all aspects of property portfolio management. He deals with a variety of complex commercial transactions including conditional contracts and options, sales and leasebacks, corporate support transactions and secured lending. Patrick deals primarily with industrial/warehouse sites and office blocks and his clients include landlords and tenants, property investors and occupiers, developers, banks and pension funds. While Patrick has a very strong landlord following he also acts for tenants on some of the most prominent business and industrial parks in the UK. Patrick also acts for one of the major Oxford University institutions on its property portfolio management and acquisitions of office and warehouse accommodation. Some examples of Patrick’s recent experience are: acting for landlords on general portfolio management issues such as lease renewals, termination notices, negotiating new leases, licences to assign/alter/change use, variations, surrenders, rent deposits, rent reviews and advising on dilapidation issues. Patrick also acts for many tenants on their own property portfolios, ie acting for a tenant this year on a 10 year lease of industrial premises at an annual rental value of £1.7m conditional plus valuable landlord’s and tenant’s works; complex disposals and leasebacks for sellers requiring capital and also disposals and leasebacks involving Heritage Fund grants and SIPPs; secured lending for banks and also acting for landlords on corporate refinancing of commercial property portfolios including a recent refinance of 30 industrial units over four sites.

Paul Balen

Consultant conducting professional and clinical negligence, product liability, defamation, and personal injury claims.

Paul Thorogood

Partner.

Paul Brown

Paul is a commercial litigator in our Oxford office with extensive experience fighting the corner for individual and business clients by resolving their disputes and protecting their commercial interests. Paul deals with a full range of commercial disputes, often for businesses in the logistics sector. Paul can also assist with property, professional negligence, and contentious trusts and probate disputes (having represented several national charities).

Paul Brailsford

Member – planning and environment.

Paul Burnley

National head of corporate defence and regulatory. Represents and advises companies and/or their boards of directors in high-profile criminal investigations, inquests or any other regulatory enforcement matters. Jarvis plc – Potters Bar tragedy; Dupont – Ladbroke Grove disaster; British Airways in the Jimmy Mubenga Inquest; NATS in the Central London helicopter crash.

Paul Tomkins

Partner in real estate litigation team dealing with all types of property disputes, ranging from disputed break notices to dilapidations to lease renewals to tenant insolvency advice. Clients comment that Paul’s advice “often brings a different angle to some of the more traditional advice provided” and that “having Paul Tomkins on your side is invaluable, he brings astuteness, clarityof thought and an awareness of client needs second to none”.

Penny Simpson

Penny is considered by Legal 500 to be a Leading Individual in the field of Environment. Having trained in the City (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s environment team) and with 20 years’ experience in both private practice and in-house roles, Penny is a solid and experienced all-round environmental lawyer with particular expertise in “natural environment” law. Within the “natural environment” niche, she has built a strong, national reputation in advising a wide range of private and public sector clients on the regulation of protected habitats, protected species, water resources, air quality and environmental impact assessment. Her clients are most often developers, environmental consultancies, mineral sector operators and water sector operators, for whom she works to overcome the constraints imposed by natural environment law so as to deliver planning permissions and the other environmental consents they need (eg protected species licences, environmental permits, abstraction licences). She also advises local authorities, objectors and environmental organisations on these issues. She has significant experience in defending public and private sector clients when faced with environmental-related regulatory or criminal proceedings brought by the Environment Agency, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, the Forestry Commission or the police (eg pollution offences, protected species offences, breaches of permits / licences). More generally, she advises on the environmental aspects of property and company transactions where she negotiates to limit her client’s environmental liabilities. She also has significant experience in health and safety law and frequently advises her clients on health and safety compliance.

Perveen Akhter

Member

Peter Crawford

Partner and Head of Corporate at Freeths Sheffield

Phil Baigent

Member

Philip Gray

Philip specialises exclusively in commercial real estate matters and has a wide range of experience of all areas of non-contentious commercial property work. He has worked extensively for both landlords and tenants on all leasehold matters (particularly for offices; retail & industrial/warehouse units); handles complex investment sales & purchases; real estate finance; and has considerable experience in advising on the property elements of corporate acquisitions and disposals.As an example of Philip’s experience in the acquisition of business property and its subsequent management, over the past 10 years Philip has acted for a particular business in growing its property portfolio from approximately 30 sites to 200 (comprising retail, warehouse and offices) across the UK. This has included leading the property team on individual and multi-site acquisitions; the leasehold management of those sites (work which involved the grant & taking assignments of leases; lease-re-gears; statutory lease renewals; property disputes; alterations and dilapidations); and their disposal. Clients say that Philip is “consistently available and responsive to all and any advice or solutions that are required either of a technical or commercial nature” and that Philip makes “it his purpose to be totally conversant with every detail of his client’s portfolio and consequently the advice he gives is bespoke to its’ business; not merely generic”

Philip Myers

A highly experienced litigator, Philip acts on a full range of contentious property matters on behalf of public sector, retail, developers and corporate occupiers. This is in relation to all aspects of contentious commercial property work.He advises on diverse aspects of property litigation issues including rights of way, party wall claims, rights to light issues, dilapidation claims, applications to assign, insolvencies, forfeiture and repossession, lease renewals and applications to assign/underlet.

Philippa Dempster

Managing Partner of London office Philippa is regarded as a leader in the field of Dispute Resolution by the Legal 500. She also uses her litigation experience to draft and negotiate contracts focusing on the key areas of risk.She has a Master’s Degree in Advanced Litigation and is a trained ADR mediator. Philippa has since 2016 been selected by her peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in England 2016 for Litigation law and is described as ’’ Highly Rated’’ by the Legal 500 (2018). She also won the prized accolade in The Lawyer, Hot 100 list 2017 and is “Hot 100 Lawyer” .

Polly Wisner

Polly advises public and private sector clients on all areas of planning and highways law in relation to major residential, retail, commercial and mixed use developments.Her areas of expertise include S106 planning agreements, S106A deeds of variation and applications under section 106A, and S38/278 highways agreements. She also advises on public rights of way, Registered Providers on Affordable Housing provisions and Planning due diligence work.

Rachael Yates

Partner in the construction team, specialising in the management of construction and engineering claims. Working with clients from all sectors of the construction industry and advising in adjudications, mediation, litigation (in the Technology and Construction Court) and arbitration (both domestic and international).

Rachel Gaffney

Director

Rachel Clarke

Rachel has over 12 years experience acting for the Social Housing sector in the area of residential development. The procurement route for Registered Providers tends to be through Development Agreements with housebuilders or land agreements with City Councils with associated Grant Agreement.Rachel acts for Registered Provider clients in the refinancing of their housing stock. She also acts for developers buying/selling land through conditional contracts or option agreements, and in relation to promoting land for development through Planning Promotion Agreements.

Rebecca Howlett

Partner

Rebecca Sawbridge

Partner and head of employment in Freeths’ Birmingham office. Advises on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law, including wrongful and unfair dismissal, discrimination law, executive terminations, TUPE, large scale reorganisations, employment aspects of mergers/acquisitions/outsourcing and litigation in the Civil Court and employment tribunal. Regularly speaks at HR seminars and provides bespoke employment law training.

Rebecca Maeers

Rebecca heads the residential property team in Nottingham and has 14 years’ experience of dealing with residential property transactions. Rebecca deals with all types of residential property work and is recommended for being proactive and thorough. Rebecca is often praised for her calm and efficient approach, helping her clients to feel at ease when it comes to the stresses of moving house.

Rena Magdani

Rena is a Partner and Head of the Employment team in Leicester. She deals with all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law for public and private sector clients. She has particular experience of representing clients at employment tribunals, advising on business reorganisations, redundancies, discrimination, unfair dismissal, TUPE regulations, providing strategic HR advice and bespoke training. Rena is recognised as a leader in the field of employment by Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500.

Richard Williams

Richard advises both lenders and borrowers on all aspects of real estate investment and development debt finance across all asset classes, including residential, commercial, retail, light industrial, student accommodation, hotels and care homes. He also acts for clients in relation to real estate debt acquisitions and disposals and in connection with CMBS and debt servicing matters. Richard has a strong reputation amongst his clients for providing pragmatic and commercial advice to enable them to achieve the most appropriate outcomes for their business. He has particular expertise in development finance and financings involving mezzanine debt and intercreditor relationships. He acts for a number of debt funds, property investors and large private equity clients.

Richard Coates

Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution, Birmingham office Richard has acted for individuals to PLCs in disputes up to £500m, both at home and abroad. He has particular experience in representing clients in complex chancery/commercial and corporate disputes. He also acts for companies and individuals in prosecuting and defending restrictive covenant claims within an employment context. Recent cases include acting for: an independent UK manufacturer of diesel generators and power generation systems in successfully defending a claim issued by a company based in the Caribbean;several defendants (including corporate and individuals) in relation to a multi-million pound, multi-jurisdictional shareholder dispute;an equity partner in the dissolution of a law firm;a partner in a multi-party high value partnership dispute;an exiting an equity partner from a law firm;a finance director summarily removed from his position and the consequential dispute arising over his shares;a European wide provider of specialist care in dispute with a supplier; andvarious individuals/companies in relation to professional negligence disputes in the building, surveying and legal sectors. In addition to providing strategic and focused advice in the context of litigation, Richard understands the importance of avoiding litigation and has acquired a wealth of experience in advising clients in relation to methods of alternative dispute resolution such as mediation. Client feedback: "Having engaged the services of Richard Coates and his team over the past 30 months to support me with a number of commercial legacy issues I inherited I can highly recommend him. He is not only fiercely strategic and crucially proactive but also objective and pragmatic. He is without doubt the solicitor you should have on your team”. “Confidence in the ability and integrity of your most senior legal adviser is paramount in managing a successful commercial organisation in today’s ever moving business environment. Richard Coates provides unerring confidence to our board members whenever legal advice is required ensuring business decisions are taken from a trusted legal position”. Duncan Williams Excool CEO Legal guides Recommended in Legal 500, 2015. Described as “pragmatic” and “focused”, Legal 500, 2014

Richard Beverley

Managing partner (Birmingham) and partner dealing with development, investment and property finance transactions, as well as professional indemnity claims with emphasis on property and construction issues.

Robert Bruce

Member

Robert Rowley

Partner dealing with company acquisitions and disposals and general corporate work.

Robert Hill

Robert has worked in our Dispute Resolution department since qualifying at Freeths in 2010. He has a broad range of litigation experience and of cases covering a varied range of different legal areas. Robert has acted for a wide breadth of clients, from private individuals through to large commercial organisations (including the public and not for profit sectors). This means that he is well placed to understand not only the needs of his own clients, but, significantly, those of the other parties to the dispute.Robert is a keen advocate of developing case strategy at the initial stages of litigation and providing a clear route to achieving client outcomes. Robert can provide helpful and practical advice from the outset, with a particular focus on how to resolve disputes in a cost-effective and timely way. He is sensitive to the needs of each client, focussing on the commercial and practical realities of the dispute.Having specialised over recent years, Robert’s case load now primarily focuses on disputes concerning contracts, estates, land, probate and trusts. He has dealt with a number of large contractual disputes, property disputes (including jointly owned property) and he has a busy caseload in relation to disputed estates, lifetime gifts and disputed trusts.

Rosalyn Shephard

Rosalyn is an associate in the Dispute Management department. She deals with a variety of disputes including agricultural, residential and commercial property, contentious probate, charities litigation, Court of Protection litigation and professional negligence. Rosalyn also advises on enforcement of judgments once obtained.Rosalyn qualified in September 2013 and has experience in handling complex high value claims in the High Court, as well as claims in the County Court and Land Registration Tribunal. She acts for private individuals, companies, trustees and administrators of estates.

Sally Goodger

Sally works in our firm’s contentious trust and probate team. She acts for individuals and charity clients to resolve disputes arising out of challenges to wills, claims against estates and disputed trusts. Sally’s clients include executors, beneficiaries and trustees. Recognising that costs are often an issue when dealing with disputes, Sally provides clear and regular guidance as to the costs position to keep her clients informed.Building close working relationships with her clients, Sally is able to deliver clear and jargon-free advice to help her clients work through the steps required to achieve a resolution. Disputes over wills/trusts and claims against estates arise at a time when families have lost a loved one, and Sally gains the trust of her clients by dealing sensitively with the issues that arise.

Sam Pancholi

Partner – real estate. Specialisms: real estate investment; medical and healthcare properties; real estate finance; and landlord and tenant. Recent/important cases: refinance of property in Nottingham valued at £11m; acquisition of medical centre investment property in Manchester for £4.6m; refinance of care home in London valued at £7m; sale of residential development property in London for £3.1m.

Sarah Moore

Partner

Sarah Norton

A diligent Real Estate lawyer, Sarah specialises in development and investment acquisitions for large London based clients, assessing sites and advising on the crucial issues.Sarah also has a strong Landlord and Tenant background, advising both Landlords and Tenants on the grant of new leases and on all aspects of leasehold management work.

Sarah Phillips

Sarah specialises in advice relating to the creation, administration and termination of settlements, including the taxation aspects. Her specialism is personal injury trusts – trusts set up to hold and manage compensation awarded for personal injury.She advises the successful claimant or the parent, if the claimant is a minor, on merits of such trusts and their creation. She also deals with the day to day administration of the trusts on behalf of the trustees and prepares annual accounts and tax returns.Sarah qualified as a solicitor in 1995, having previously studied accountancy. She joined Freeths LLP in 2009 and is also a member of the Association of Taxation Technicians.

Sarah Foster

Sarah is the managing partner of the Oxford office of Freeths. She has twenty five years of managing disputes for her clients, with a particular emphasis on inheritance and trust disputes and professional indemnity claims. She heads the private client litigation team in Oxford and deals with a wide range of cases, including issues surrounding the validity of a will; claims against estates for financial provision; disputed trusts; and the removal of executors and trustees. She also acts for private individuals in disputed Court of Protection applications/proceedings during a person’s lifetime. Sarah also has many years’ experience of dealing with claims made against professionals including legal, construction and financial professionals. She specialises particularly in legal or financial claims with a trust or probate background. She also advises on coverage disputes between insurers and insured. Sarah is well known and has been praised by clients for her no nonsense, efficient and diligent approach. She is a fierce advocate of mediation, recognizing that in family disputes particularly, it can be an extremely useful tool to bring about early closure of disputes and at reduced cost.

Shashi Chambers

Specialist Real Estate Partner with particular focus on development and development finance work. Many years’ experience of high value commercial transactions, often involving complex issues. Has acted for developers and funders on mixed use developments. Currently focussing on the aviation and logistics sectors where recent work includes: Acting on the development and lease of a brand new distribution centre in Swindon for a national logistics client. Advising a major UK airport on a variety of real estate and commercial contracts, many worth millions of pounds. Acting on the development of a new 135,000 sq ft logistics warehouse hub. Advising airports on concessions, tenders and commercial arrangements including contracts specific to airport operators. Acting for a national logistics giant on various projects involving their UK portfolio.

Shradha Virji

Shradha is an Associate solicitor in the Immigration Team. She specialises in all aspects of immigration and has significant experience in advising corporate and institutional clients on a full spectrum of UK business immigration matters.Shradha has a substantial track record as in immigration specialist, having successful secured immigration status for a number executives of large multinational organisations in the UK and worldwide. The breath of her experience covers all tiers of the Points Based System, with a particular focus on the Tier 2 (General) and (Intra Company Transfer) categories.

Simon Baigent

Member

Simon Barker

Simon is an intellectual property lawyer based in Birmingham. Qualified since 2000, he has many years’ experience in advising business on intellectual property related matters; covering trade marks, patents, designs, copyright and confidential information.A seasoned litigator of intellectual property disputes, Simon leads a team that is focussed on resolving disputes by keeping in mind the commercial objectives while ensuring there is understanding of all possible outcomes.Specialised with a team of dedicated lawyers, Simon’s practice is holistic. He offers intellectual property well-being with a fully integrated service that is necessary for efficient management and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights.Simon has acted in numerous cases before the UK courts, at the UK Intellectual Property Office and at the EU Intellectual Property Office. He has also appeared before the General Court in Luxembourg.

Simon Abbott

Partner dealing with all aspects of commercial property.

Simon Hobbs

Partner in charge of commercial litigation and restructuring/insolvency in Milton Keynes. Rated in both disciplines in both The Legal 500 and Chambers. On the insolvency front, Simon is a ‘highly rated’ expert on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious corporate and personal insolvency matters, with some 18 years’ experience. On the Commercial Litigation front, he is described by clients as ‘hard working’ with a ‘quietly confident style’. He deals with heavyweight contractual claims for major commercial clients and local SMEs, franchising, shareholder and partnership disputes, professional negligence claims and IP matters. Simon prides himself on building up trusted advisor status with his clients.

Stephen Lewis

An experienced real estate lawyer, Stephen is involved with investment and transactional work for funds, property companies and high net worth individuals.He is a member of Prince’s Trust North West Committee and the solicitor for Formby Golf Club.

Suriya Edwards

Partner

Thomas Golding

A partner in Freeths’ Real Estate department, Thomas advises businesses (and individuals) on a variety of commercial property matters. These include acquisitions and disposals, refinancings and property development.Whilst working across a broad range of areas, Thomas has particular expertise in the private care sector and acts for a number of household name care operators and developers. He offers significant experience in dealing with property aspects of banking / refinancing matters. Thomas also has extensive experience of dealing with institutional “sale and leaseback” funding transactions, including involving UK and US REITs.Whilst he is a property lawyer by trade, Thomas has extensive experience of property aspects of corporate transactions, and has led property aspects on many share and business sale transactions. Thomas is also experienced in property finance transactions.

Tom Rowley

London-based corporate partner with broad practice focused on M&A, private equity and restructuring. Also experienced in capital markets work, particularly on AIM.

Tom Draper

Director

Tom Walker

Partner

Tom Brown

Partner specialising in mergers and acquisitions and banking and finance.

Tom Burgess

Tom specialises in family law and his focus is on helping you to reach an amicable agreement quickly, constructively and cost-effectively. He does this by working with you to find the best approach – whether it’s advising as you seek to reach an agreement yourself; or by going through mediation, or negotiating on your behalf.When going to court is the only option, Tom has extensive experience of contested court proceedings. Tom is a family lawyer primarily based in our Oxford office, but also works from our Milton Keynes office and is able to meet with clients there.Tom is a member of Resolution, a family law professionals’ group committed to resolving family disputes in a constructive, non-confrontational way that puts the best interests of the children first.

Tristam FitzHugh

Tristam is a highly experienced transactional real estate lawyer who advises on a range of commercial real estate matters. This includes freehold and leasehold acquisitions and disposals, development agreements, forward-funding agreements, complex agreements for lease and landlord & tenant and property management work.Tristam trained and practiced for a number of years at a leading City law firm before moving to Freeths in 2014.

Tristan Duncan

Tristan is a trusted advisor in relation to legal and commercial issues.He has expertise in Commercial Litigation, Professional Negligence, Contracts, Partnership Disputes, Shareholder Disputes, SPAs (warranty and indemnity claims), Financial Mis-selling, Intellectual Property, Landlord & Tenants, Global Entities (international disputes), Property (domestic and commercial), Injunctions, Mediation, Debt Recovery and ICC arbitration.He is passionate about Dispute Management, rugby league, history and Japanese supercar slayers.

Vicky Pritchard

Vicky has considerable experience in the investment property field and of landlord and tenant matters, both for landlords and tenant occupiers. She has been advising local authority pension funds and other institutional investor clients for over 15 years.Vicky currently works closely alongside fund managers from CBRE, Aberdeen Asset Management and Colliers Capital – managing properties in the retail, industrial, leisure and other sectors.

Will Richmond-Coggan

Will is a Partner specialising in data protection advice, both contentious and non-contentious. Will advises a range of clients from large multi-nationals looking to ensure that their UK/EU operations are compliant with the requirements of GDPR while integrating with their worldwide activities, through to start ups particularly working in the deep tech fields like AI, facial recognition and big data applications. As a nationally recognised expert on GDPR and data protection matters, Will has established a broad practice servicing clients across the UK, as well as having considerable experience in advising clients based in the US/Canada and in the Far East. He provides strategic advice to help clients to build products and services around the concepts of data protection by design, supports clients with their transformation or compliance audit activities, and represents clients in contentious matters up to and including at Court in appropriate circumstances. Will’s broader disputes work encompasses a range of commercial technology disputes. He has acted for national and international hardware and software companies in litigating over misuse of their information; breaches of contract and diversion of business and for smaller clients in some ground-breaking litigation around social media litigation.

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