Lester Aldridge LLP

Adam Corcoran

Adam Corcoran is a Partner in the Real Estate team. Adam has had twenty years’ experience of advising clients on a wide range of property matters. He has acted for developers, charities, pension funds and others in the acquisition and sale of land and buildings, refinancing transactions as well as commercial landlord and tenant matters and business sales and purchases. Clients have appreciated Adam’s proactive approach to their matters. Having run his own law firm previously he is ideally placed to understand the needs of his commercial business clients.

Andrew Slatter

Andrew Slatter is a Partner in the Property & Conveyancing team. Andrew is an established residential property lawyer with nearly thirty years of experience. He acts for overseas and domestic private clients on the acquisition, management and disposal of residential property, with a particular specialism in leasehold reform. Andrew was one of the first lawyers in London to specialise advising flat leaseholders on their lease extension and enfranchisement rights when these were introduced in 1993, and thus has extensive experience acting for lessees, buyers and sellers across London and on major estates such as Grosvenor, Cadogan, Portman and Wellcome.

Ann Lloyd

Ann Lloyd is a Partner and Head of the Litigation and Recoveries team. Ann handles a wide range of contentious asset finance and consumer credit matters, including satisfactory quality and title disputes, wrongful interference claims and the enforceability of consumer credit agreements, both regulated and unregulated. Ann also deals with defended mortgage cases for commercial mortgage lenders and handles business and personal banking cases including the recovery of secured and unsecured facilities and shortfalls.

Ben Kerley

Ben is a commercial litigator with experience in all forms of dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration and adjudication. He acts for individuals and corporate clients ranging from sole traders to publicly listed companies in a variety of sectors including charities, care, sport, construction, manufacturing and investment trusts. He is regularly instructed in contractual disputes, professional negligence claims, defamation matters and corporate and partnership disputes. Ben frequently acts for clients in relation to debt claims, including in the preparation and service of Statutory Demands and enforcement. Ben is experienced in advising on matters involving intellectual property including trademark registrations, trademark infringement disputes, advice relating to copyright infringement and passing off claims.

Bethan Dodd

Bethan Dodd is a Partner in the Real Estate team. Bethan is an experienced real estate solicitor and advises clients on transactional commercial property matters. Bethan has particular expertise in the healthcare sector, including care homes, primary care surgery development, funding and occupation requirements. As well as advising on landlord and tenant matters, bank finance, acquisitions and disposals, Bethan has extensive experience in advising on NHS capital funding schemes for new surgery developments and advising on the Premise Costs Directions 2013. Bethan’s clients praise her ability to clearly explain complex areas of law and to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders to find pragmatic ways to achieve her client’s objectives.

Chris Evans

Chris Evans is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team. Chris is a commercial litigator working with clients across a number of sectors. His work ranges from providing commercial, solution focused advice to clients involved in potential contract disputes, to advising and representing clients in high value court and arbitral proceedings. Chris has particular experience of complex contract disputes and financial claims, intellectual property claims, professional negligence claims and insolvency related matters. He also regularly advises on contentious and non-contentious Companies Act claims including schemes of arrangement and reductions of capital.

Danielle Montezuma

Danielle Montezuma is a Partner in our Litigation & Recoveries team. She is an experienced litigator who acts for finance houses, banks and other creditors in a variety of litigation. Client’s favour Danielle’s practical and commercial approach. Danielle advises both captive and non-captive asset finance clients on the recovery of high value vehicles, equipment, and resulting shortfalls. She regularly deals with related issues such as title disputes, satisfactory quality claims, and issues concerning regulatory compliance. She advises banks in relation to the recovery of secured and unsecured facilities, dealing with challenges to lending terms and director guarantees, and disputed claims for possession. Danielle also acts for Law of Property Act 1925 receivers and insolvency practitioners in recovering property and other debts.

Danielle Slater

Danielle is an Associate in the Corporate & Commercial team at Lester Aldridge. She assists and advises on transactional M&A matters, where clients are either buying, selling or merging companies or partnerships, and also advises on share buybacks and company restructuring. In addition to drafting and helping to negotiate the transaction documentation, Danielle has experience managing the due diligence and disclosure process. She remains calm and level-headed in situations that can be stressful and time-critical. Danielle often reviews and reports to the client on a variety of commercial agreements and arrangements, highlighting the potential risks and incorporating new clauses to ensure that the document achieves the client’s desired outcome. Another aspect of the services she provides is corporate compliance and company secretarial services. She conducts reviews of the company’s corporate books, registers and filings and advises the client accordingly.

David Healy

David Healy is a Partner and head of the Personal Injury & Medical Negligence team. David undertakes work for those seriously injured and has settled cases totalling well over £100 million. He has acted in a number of high profile cases. Typically these cases involve spinal cord damage, brain injury, amputations and/or serious burns. David has also practised in clinical negligence. David is very experienced in winning cases where his clients have been injured in road traffic accidents and accidents at work. He has a special interest in acting for members of the Armed Forces and for people with injuries caused by animals.

David Fanchi

David Fanchi is a Partner in the Real Estate team. David acts for property owners and lenders acquiring, disposing and re/financing numerous commercial real estate interests, both individually and on a portfolio basis. He advises national and international commercial real estate owners and occupiers in the acquisition, management and/or disposal of their commercial real estate interests. David is well-regarded for both his personable approach and commercial outlook to ensure matters are pursued as diligently as possible.

Dean Drew

Dean is a corporate partner with over 20 years’ experience at national and regional law firms in the UK, during which time he has also held key business leadership roles. His principal areas of expertise include mergers & acquisitions, disposals (private sale and auction), equity investment and fund raisings, group company restructuring, reorganisations and demergers, joint ventures and shareholders’ agreements, commercial agreements and UK Companies Act compliance. Dean provides specialist advice to clients on the process and approach to closing successful mergers & acquisitions and other transactions. Over recent years he has won awards for his work on complex and high-value acquisitions and fund raisings. His work is mainly in the technology, automotive and real estate sectors where he is able to provide deal-related sector insight to clients based on wide-ranging experience.

Doug Irvine

Doug is a Partner in the property department with over 15 years’ experience working in property with particular experience acting for buyers and sellers in the London residential market. Doug has acted for high net worth individuals, foreign investors and private banks. He also has experience in acting for purchasers of new build development and has acted for several developers in the acquisition of land for residential development.

Edward Foster

Edward Foster is a Partner in the Litigation & Recoveries team. With experience in-house and in private practice, Edward Foster has a specialism in asset finance and insolvency. He advises in consumer credit disputes, especially in the motor finance industry. He has considerable experience of commercial litigation in the asset finance sector, in addition to alternative dispute resolution and insolvency. Edward is also experienced in enforcement of debts owed to local authorities, and debt recovery in general. Edward has a varied client base including blue chip national and global lenders; captive and independent motor finance companies; factoring companies; insolvency practitioners; Local Authorities and football clubs.

Edward Adamson

Edward advises businesses in a range of sectors on transactional matters such as private mergers and acquisitions and corporate reorganisations. He has particular experience in the hotel and leisure sectors and the healthcare sector, including GP practices and care homes. In addition, Edward advises a variety of charities and social enterprises and their trustees on a range of commercial and governance issues.

Fiona Brooke

Fiona is an Associate in the Personal Injury team. She is also a qualified Chartered Legal Executive. Fiona has over 20 years of experience in personal injury litigation, including high-value and complex cases. She advises in all areas of personal injury, from employers and public liability to road traffic accident claims.

Grant Esterhuizen

Grant is a partner at Lester Aldridge who heads up the firm’s Commercial Group and Corporate Team. He is dual-qualified UK solicitor and South African attorney and has specialised in company and commercial law since qualifying in the UK. Grant has over 20 years’ experience advising on commercial and corporate matters.  His advisory scope includes joint ventures, commercial agreements and corporate transactions. He has particular experience in cross-border corporate transactions, having closed transactions involving buyers or sellers based in foreign jurisdictions such as China, Australia, Canada, USA, Brazil, French Polynesia and Europe. Grant has clients across a number of SME sectors and has specific specialism in advising clients in the software development, software licensing, manufacturing and export sectors. His clients regard him to be commercial yet tenacious in his approach.

Izabela Arnold

Senior Associate

James Realff

James is a Partner in the Southampton Real Estate Team and advises on all aspects of commercial property transactions including: freehold acquisitions and disposals; commercial land development; landlord and tenant matters; the sale and purchase of agricultural land; and ecumenical property matters. James is well known for his down-to-earth and engaging manner as well as his informed and commercial advice. He has been involved in a number of significant transactions including the purchase of multi-let retail and industrial estates, a shopping centre in Chatham and numerous brownfield sites for development as regional distribution centres for retailers. In addition, James has experience in the acquisition, disposal and financing of rural land as well as property portfolio management for large religious institutions.

Joanna Kay

Joanna Kay is a Partner in the Family team. Joanna advises on all private family law matters, including divorce, judicial separation, financial settlements, cohabitation claims, and children matters such as international relocation and surrogacy. She has a wealth of experience advising on pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements as a financial planning tool. She is regularly instructed on these, often involving high net-worth clients with international considerations. Joanna’s clients are based in the UK and abroad, often with substantial assets and complex arrangements. During financial negotiations, she uses her commercial insight, strategy and judgement to achieve swift, practical and cost-effective resolutions where possible. Her cases often settle out of court, and she provides strong representation when court proceedings are required. Joanna’s clients are fully supported throughout the time they work together.

John Townsend

John Townsend is a Partner in the Property & Conveyancing team. John is a specialist residential property lawyer and has 20 years’ experience advising buyers and sellers in relation to freehold and leasehold transactions, dealing in particular with high value properties in London and in the country. In addition to carrying out transactional work, he also has particular expertise of new leases and development property, Court of Protection and probate sales, re-mortgages, enfranchisement, auction sales and purchases and secured lending.

Kate Stewart

Kate is a Partner and heads the property litigation team. She advises on complex real estate litigation and dispute resolution. Kate works closely with our real estate teams, providing guidance for the smooth procurement of property transactions and handling any property related matters which have become disputed or which are the subject of litigation both in the commercial and residential sectors. Kate’s client base includes property developers, national house builders, national lenders and property investors. In addition Kate also advises on high end residential property related issues or disputes.

Kevin Barnett

Kevin Barnett is a Partner in the Employment & HR team. Kevin has worked across both the public and private sectors, for high street practices, local authorities and RSLs. As a result of this diverse range of experience he has a good understanding of the various different pressures and considerations that apply when providing advice to individuals, businesses and public bodies. Kevin is experienced in all aspects of employment law, both claimant and respondent, from drafting contracts and procedures, through to providing representation before tribunals in cases involving multiple claimants, and advising on dismissal and re-engagement procedures in relation to contract variations for 500 plus employees. He has also acted for both applicants and local authorities in relation to a wide variety of licensing matters from the sale and supply of alcohol right through to the keeping of dangerous wild animals by private individuals. Having acted as legal adviser to a number of different licensing authorities, he is well-placed to advise on what is, and is not, likely to be acceptable to a local authority and how best to overcome any issues that may give rise for concern. Previous private clients have included a number of care homes, several defence contractors, and numerous small enterprises, particularly in the retail sector. In addition to the public sector work undertaken as an employee, he has also acted for a number of other public bodies including the DWP, the Environment Agency and a local fire authority. Kevin is admired for his pragmatic approach to most problems, and for finding solutions which minimise both cost and risk to clients.

Kurt Lee

Kurt Lee is a Partner and Head of the Tax, Trusts, Wills & Probate team. Kurt Lee advises individuals on complex tax, trust or will requirements and businesses on any aspect of tax from incorporating to demerging companies, employee share schemes or Enterprise Investment schemes for outside investment. He also advises on the availability of Business and Agricultural Property Reliefs for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes and Entrepreneurs Relief for capital gains tax (CGT). Kurt has over 17 years’ experience in tax and has a great deal of knowledge in IHT and CGT tax planning strategies. As a trust specialist, he can also advise on the creation, running and breaking of trusts. Kurt can advise on drafting complex, tax efficient wills.

Laura Guntrip

Laura Guntrip is a Partner and Head of the Healthcare team. Laura leads the Healthcare Team in advising providers of adult care homes, nursing homes, supported living facilities, independent hospitals, children’s homes and schools, throughout England and Wales, on a range of issues. Laura regularly represents clients in challenging inspection reports and defending enforcement action by regulators such as CQC, CIW or Ofsted. This includes action by the regulator to refuse or vary registration, impose conditions of registration or cancel registration, including appeals to the Care Standards Tribunal and urgent actions before a magistrate. Laura also has defends clients in criminal investigations and prosecutions, by either CQC, HSE, Fire Authority, Environmental Health or the Police. She is experienced in the field of criminal law and is able to represent providers from PACE interviews under caution, through to prosecution. In addition, Laura regularly represents healthcare providers, GPs and others in Coroner’s Inquests, throughout England. Her work also includes local authority or CCG contractual disputes, disputes with residents, Court of Protection cases, safeguarding investigations and community care cases. Laura also has experience of representing clients in relation to professional misconduct hearings or disputing their inclusion on the barred lists; as well as public law judicial review proceedings within the care sector. Laura also has a strong reputation for her regulatory due diligence work which she frequently undertakes for purchasers, vendors or funders, dealing with acquisitions, sales or refinancing of all types of care facilities, including care homes, day schools, children’s homes, independent special schools, fostering agencies, acute medical units and fertility clinics. As a result of her expertise in these niche areas and her excellent reputation as a legal advisor in the sector, Laura is often asked to speak at conferences nationally and regularly writes for sector publications, including Caring Times.

Linda Jacques

Linda Jacques is a Partner in the Marine, Shipping & Logistics team. Linda acts for clients all over the world and has an excellent understanding of trade issues which arise out of the carriage of goods by ship, air and land. It is common to find lawyers specialised in one of these fields but rarer to find a lawyer who fully appreciates the entire trade chain. She offers a pragmatic and incisive view to try and get issues and disputes resolved as cost effectively as possible.

Lisa Watson-Cook

Whether you work for a charity, social enterprise, voluntary organisation or association, Lisa can advise you on all aspects of charity law. Lisa’s background is as in-house counsel for a ‘top ten’ charity. In addition to providing a broad range of legal, regulatory and constitutional advice to the national umbrella body, she was responsible for the charity’s constituent parts, namely 150 separately registered branches, affiliated trusts, grant-making charities and non-charitable subsidiaries. This role has given her unique insight, versatility and knowledge of the charity sector. Understanding your organisation’s operating model as well as the wider regulatory environment means she can provide simple, pragmatic and tailored advice. Lisa’s aim is to support trustees and charity professionals to advance their strategic objectives with minimal risk. Lisa’s particular experience lies with federated or branch structures, membership bodies, animal charities, trading subsidiaries, governance reform and supporting charities with a range of compliance issues, including fundraising and data protection.

Liz Oaten

Liz Oaten is a Partner in the Personal Injury & Medical Negligence team. Liz has extensive practical experience in managing, including to trial, a varied high value and high profile clinical negligence claims portfolio. She has secured multi-million-pound settlements for claimants across a broad spectrum of specialities including obstetrics, gynaecology, neurosurgery, urology, orthopaedic and plastic surgery. Liz also has experience in pursuing professional negligence claims against solicitors arising out of their poor management of clinical negligence claims. Liz has specialised in handling clinical negligence cases since qualification in 1987. She has considerable experience in the courts and has been involved in a number of reported cases that have set legal precedents. Liz has a postgraduate degree (LLM) in the legal aspects of medical practice and is accredited as a mediator. Liz is a member of all three specialist clinical negligence schemes; the APIL accredited clinical negligence specialist scheme, the AvMA clinical negligence panel and The Law Society’s clinical negligence accreditation scheme. Liz is also an assessor for the APIL Clinical Negligence Panel and an APIL senior litigator. Liz is personally recommended to clients on a regular basis and undertakes work across the country. She has been acclaimed by clients for: “A brilliant and professional service throughout”, “Great result in a complex case” ‘Very honest, reliable and very professional”, “I was treated as a person, I was shown empathy and I felt like a friend” “We were treated fairly and with sensitivity at all times”. Liz has developed a close network of trusted medical advisors who assist in the screening process of new claims and she undertakes work funded by a variety of organisations and regularly acts for clients on a conditional fee basis (no win no fee).

Lucy Stevens

Lucy Stevens is a Partner in the Real Estate team. Lucy advises on site purchasing through to developing the site. Her clients include residential developers, retirement and care homes and port authorities. As a planning and development specialist, Lucy deals with a broad range of matters including site acquisition, landlord and tenant work, and drafting and negotiating planning and infrastructure agreements. She has worked on a number of substantial projects for the firm’s retail and development clients.

Lucy Goff

Associate

Mahendree Naidoo

Mahendree Naidoo is a Partner in the Tax, Trusts, Wills & Probate team. Mahendree has over 18 years of UK experience in advising clients in relation to wills, estate and tax planning, trusts and estates administration. Mahendree is known for her empathetic and practical approach in her advice to clients. With extensive experience working with families, individuals and business owners with the preparation of their wills, inheritance tax and lifetime planning, including lifetime trusts, powers of attorney and the administration of deceased estates, she is well placed to assist clients in navigating the complexities of the legal system. Her experience covers work in these areas internationally, as well as in the UK.

Mark Benham

Mark Benham is a Partner in the Real Estate team. Mark is an experienced property lawyer and has regional and national clients including national housebuilders, PLCs and care home providers. Mark advises developers and landowners generally on land development, strategic issues, and structuring transactions. Mark also advises on commercial landlord & tenant matters.

Matt Gilks

Senior Associate

Matthew Barrow

Matthew is the Managing Partner and COFA of the firm, as well as a Partner in the Real Estate Group at Lester Aldridge. He advises on a wide variety of commercial property matters including: Distressed property realisations Secured lending All aspects of non-contentious landlord and tenant work Marina based property matters Portfolio management Investment acquisitions and disposals

Michelle Musker

Michelle has been with the firm since 2003 and is a Partner and Chartered Legal Executive who heads up the operational side of Real Estate Finance, our volume services property team. Michelle generally deals with a wide range of volume services for commercial and residential mortgage lenders. Her experience includes acquisitions and disposals of portfolios, individual repeat transactions, lease extensions, buy to let purchases and remortgages, residential and commercial loans as well as plot sales. Some of her clients include private individuals, landlords, developers, relocation companies, telecommunications as well as residential and commercial lenders.

Nicole Ridgewell

Nicole is a Senior Associate specialising in health and social care law. Nicole’s work has ranged from advice and advocacy for registered healthcare professionals in fitness to practise investigations to challenges against CQC and Ofsted on behalf of private providers and NHS Trusts. She has significant experience in public and administrative law matters, including judicial reviews; challenges to DBS certificates; regulatory due diligence for purchasers, vendors and funders; preparation for and representation at inquests; healthcare and professional disciplinary actions; safeguarding investigations; and ICO investigations. Nicole also advises on local authority fee disputes, on behalf of both care home residents and care home providers, and special educational needs provision, including appeals to the Special Educational Needs & Disability Tribunal. She also has experience in a wider range of health and welfare matters, including Personal Health Budget eligibility, hospital discharge assessments, best interest decision-making and engagement with Court of Protection proceedings. She also advises on discrete matters of public law and personal injury. Nicole writes regularly for health and social care publications and presents at conferences and seminars on health and social care matters. She is the co-author of the Nursing & Midwifery section of the Legal Action Group book ‘Professional discipline and healthcare regulators: a legal handbook’ (1st edition 2012, 2nd edition 2018).

Oliver Phipps

Oliver Phipps is a Partner & Head of the International Private Client team.Oliver Phipps specialises in probate with a particular focus on the administration of estates with assets located in multiple jurisdictions. To complement his specialism, Oliver is a practising notary public, which enhances the understanding of private international law issues between common law and civil law jurisdictions.As well as dealing with international estates, Oliver regularly prepares wills for individuals resident outside of England and advises on UK inheritance tax exposure for individuals domiciled outside of the UK. Oliver has administered estates with assets located in a wide variety of jurisdictions throughout Europe. Beyond Europe, examples of jurisdictions that Oliver regularly deals with include: South Africa, USA, Canada and Singapore.

Parisa Jones

Parisa Jones is a Partner in the Tax, Trusts, Wills & Probate team. Parisa is an experienced solicitor specialising in wills, powers of attorneys, trusts, estate administration and tax planning. She has acted for a broad spectrum of clients dealing with matters of varying degrees of complexity. Parisa prides herself on the level of service she provides her clients. She is approachable, sympathetic and offers clear practical advice. Parisa tailors her service to her clients’ needs and works quickly and efficiently to deal with matters on their behalf.

Philippa Langton

Philippa has a strong background in commercial shipping, with a focus on charterparty and other contractual disputes, and has advised many international, high-profile companies on a wide range of issues. Philippa also now works closely with the leisure marine and superyacht sectors, providing advice on contentious, non-contentious and regulatory matters. Philippa’s P&I Club background and experience of working closely with shipowners and operators enables her to provide quick, commercial and practical advice that is focused on the business needs of her clients. She also has a particular interest in East Asia, having a BA in Mandarin, spent several years living and working in Shanghai and the last few years working with the Japanese market.

Rachel Gimson

Rachel Gimson is a Partner in the Property Litigation team. Rachel has considerable experience of a wide range of property dispute matters, including a variety of commercial and residential lease disputes such as contested lease renewals, break notices, breach of covenant, forfeiture, dilapidations and service charge disputes. Rachel also advises on land issues such as boundaries, restrictive covenants, rights of way and rights of light, acting for both companies and private individuals.

Rebecca Walker

Rebecca Walker is a Partner in the Restructuring & Insolvency team. Rebecca has worked at various top City and regional practices. She has also completed a 6-month secondment to a hedge fund and a short secondment to a German law firm. Rebecca handles complex restructuring and insolvencies, often involving an international or regulatory element. She is experienced in insolvency transactions (including pre-packaged administration sales), providing strategic advice to companies and their directors in financial difficulty and advising secured lenders on the enforcement of their security. She also regularly advises on how to structure corporate transactions and commercial arrangements to protect against counterparty insolvency risk. In addition to the above, Rebecca is well known for her expertise in solvent restructurings, including section 110 demergers and members’ voluntary liquidations.

Rebecca Stubbs

Rebecca is an Associate in the Property Litigation team. Rebecca assists with all types of landlord and tenant disputes, including dilapidations, forfeiture, lease renewals under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and rent reviews. She also assists with residential property disputes, including possession proceedings, service charge disputes, restrictive covenants, rights of way issues and boundary disputes. Rebecca’s clients comment on her rapport and making them feel at ease with legal jargon. Rebecca is actively involved in business development. She has been Vice Chairman of a chamber of commerce in Dorset. She has also assisted with setting up inaugural networking groups for young professionals.

Rebecca Humm

Rebecca is an experienced development lawyer whose focus is the residential sector, where she advises a range of national and regionally based house-builder clients on the acquisition of land for development. She has particular expertise in negotiating conditional contracts, options and overage arrangements. She has particular expertise in drafting and negotiating planning and infrastructure agreements, undertaking planning and environmental due diligence as part of site acquisition and advising on breaches of planning legislation. Rebecca also has considerable experience in contentious planning work, representing clients in respect of both planning appeals and High Court legal challenges. Rebecca also has experience in advising developers and landowners generally on land development, strategic issues, and structuring transactions. She has acted for a broad range of clients, including commercial and residential developers, charities, retirement and care home operators, and port authorities.

Richard Fairbairn

Richard is a partner in the tax, trusts and wills team in London. He has wide experience of most aspects of private client work including trusts, wills and probate and associated tax planning. His experience covers work in these areas internationally as well as in the UK, although as a French speaker the international bias is particularly focussed on France and French clients in London.

Roger Woolley

Roger is a Partner in the Real Estate team. Roger specialises in major development projects, including site acquisitions, financing, development agreements and construction documentation and disposals. He regularly advises on joint ventures and collaborations. Whilst dealing with a broad range of development projects, Roger has a particular interest in waterside developments, acting for several ports and marina operators, and the Healthcare sector. He deals with substantial and complex property transactions and property-related projects on behalf of a range of clients across the UK. Roger has a broad range of clients, including developers, banks, port and marina operators, housebuilders, and care home operators.

Rosemary Sharp

Rosemary Sharp is a Partner and Head of the Family team. Rosemary advises on a wide range of clients on all aspects of private family law. Her work predominantly focuses on divorce, financial claims arising on divorce, businesses and complex income arrangements, farming assets, armed forces personnel, landed estates and Trusts. Rosemary’s work also includes private children matters, contact & residence and financial provision for children following an unmarried relationship breakdown. She also regularly advise on wealth protection issues such as prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Rosemary’s approach and strategy is always tailored to each individual client and focuses on what they want to achieve. Where possible she always tries to find a pragmatic solution for clients. If a court application is necessary, her advice is robust and practical.

Russell Kelly

Russell Kelly is a Partner and Head of the Marine team. Prior to moving to Southampton, Russell worked for 12 years at one of the specialist shipping law firms in London, where he qualified and subsequently became a partner. He relocated to the South Coast and joined Lester Aldridge in October 2000 as one of the founding members of LA Marine. Russell’s long and broad experience across both the commercial shipping and the leisure marine and superyacht sectors means that he can provide detailed and client focused advice on a broad range of issues. He will not be unsettled no matter what a client or opponent may throw in his direction. Over the years he has dealt with many and various interesting cases, ranging from multiple injuries and deaths following an explosion in the pump room of a tanker, a long and technical dispute between the builders and the purchasers of 3 naval off-shore patrol vessels, the prosecution of owners and operators of various ships, yachts and RIBs, the negotiation of a contract with the Moroccan Government for off-shore exploration of the continental shelf and the building and financing of many different types of vessel. Russell has also handled many transactions for the sale and purchase of vessels of all sizes and values, a number of which have involved complicated ownership structures with completion taking place off shore. Although Russell now focusses more on the non-contentious side of LA Marine’s practice, advising particularly on vessel sale and purchase, marine finance and new build and refit contracts, he does still deal with regulatory matters, such as the investigation and prosecution of vessel owners and operators following breaches (or alleged breaches) of the many Merchant Shipping Regulations, and with insurance claims and other disputes. He is also part of the firm’s team advising port and marina operators. Russell has also been advising clients in relation to disputes arising under the contracts for the design, build and sale of vessels ranging from a chain ferry to luxury tenders for superyachts, sports boats and cruising yachts. A measure of his reputation and standing in the market is the fact that he is frequently invited to speak at industry events and is retained by several trade bodies to advise on industry precedent documents and membership matters generally.

Sam Wylie

Sam is a Partner in the firm’s Real Estate Development team and has worked in the industry since 2007. Sam provides advice on a wide range of real estate matters, including option agreements, contracts conditional upon planning permission and promotion agreements. He also works for landlords in investment portfolio asset management. Sam has a loyal following of local and regional housebuilders, commercial property developers and investors in and around the Dorset and Hampshire area. Sam works closely with his clients to help them achieve their business objectives by providing strategic, practical and commercial legal advice.

Sian Rogers

Sian is a Senior Associate solicitor in the Southampton Real Estate team. She advises on a wide range of commercial property matters including: Portfolio management, acquisition and investment Secured lending All aspects of non-contentious landlord and tenant work Distressed property realisations Acquisitions and disposals (including portfolios and pension funds)

Suki Samra

Suki Samra is a Partner in the Real Estate team. Suki acts for a broad range of commercial clients including companies, financial institutions, high net worth individuals and household names, advising on their property requirements. He has a strong focus on landlord and tenant work and enfranchisement, acting for landlords and property investors with a wide portfolio of commercial property. Suki and his team also provide volume property services to financial institutions on their secured lending work to telecom companies on their infrastructure projects and housebuilders on plot sales.

Susan Cowan

Susan Cowan is a Partner in the Corporate & Commercial team. Susan is Lester Aldridge’s training principal, co-ordinating the recruitment and rotation of all trainees. Susan’s main areas of work are company acquisitions and disposals, company reorganisations, shareholder agreements, partnership agreements and Limited Liability Partnership members’ agreements. Susan’s transactional work is largely in the care sector, acting on the acquisition and disposal of care home companies and businesses including care of the elderly, children’s homes and schools. Susan’s partnership work is focused mainly on NHS GP medical practices.

Tom Alder

Tom Alder is a Partner in the Real Estate team. Tom is an experienced planning lawyer who deals with a wide range of planning issues, both contentious and non-contentious, on behalf of developer clients, acting on a national basis for a number. Tom’s key focus is the housebuilding sector (both market and retirement sector), advising in respect of residential or residential led mixed use schemes. He also has considerable experience in contentious planning work, representing clients in planning appeals and High Court legal challenges. Additionally, Tom is responsible for a niche practice advising ports and marinas in respect of operational agreements and statutory consents.