Roythornes Solicitors

Roythornes Solicitors is one of the UK’s leading agri-food firms, with extensive experience in other sectors including private client, energy, and commercial property.

The firm: Roythornes was founded in 1934. It now has five offices in Alconbury, Birmingham, Nottingham, Peterborough, and Spalding and over 200 staff. The firm’s main office is in Spalding, which is at the heart of the UK’s agriculture and fresh produce industries.

The firm focuses on five key business sectors – agriculture and landed estates, charities, food and drink, housing and development and natural resources.

Roythorne’s clients range from individuals and families to some of the UK’s fastest moving and most innovative businesses. Within this there are long-standing family trusts looking after large country estates, property investors managing extensive portfolios and large high-street charities and corporates. A large proportion of clients have been coming to Roythornes for generations. The firm also acts for some of the most entrepreneurial companies in the UK – in renewable energy.

Types of work undertaken
Agriculture: Roythornes’ key strength is in agriculture, where the firm has a national client base – working for farmers and landowners, the agri-businesses they run, and their families. This brings in a wide range of work including agricultural property, commercial property, and private client, where the firm has a particularly strong reputation. It acts for many trusts and estates, providing tax and trust advice to help generations of families protect and preserve their assets.

Food: Roythornes’ experience helps clients to manage their businesses when margins are tight. The firm helps them to negotiate with high-street retailers and make sure their position is as protected as possible when developing new and innovative food products. When high-profile issues arise over food safety, it can act fast to ensure damage is minimised and all-important reputations maintained. Roythornes has extensive supply chain and logistics experience.

Natural resources: The firm has a national reputation in this area, in particular, working on large-scale renewable energy projects. The team, led by Edd Johnson, has been involved in some of Europe’s largest schemes. With experience of wind power, solar, anaerobic digestion, and energy from waste as well as the emerging technologies of battery storage and hydrogen production, the team’s ability to see projects from both sides (developer and landowner) gives it a unique position when advising clients.

Property: Roythornes undertakes a considerable amount of work for developers, in particular, large national house builders and Registered Providers of social housing. It has an efficient team handling plot sales for new-build estates etc. This type of work requires efficient systems and work processes that are developed in-house. The recent opening of the Birmingham office has significantly expanded the firm’s offering in this sector.

Planning: A rapidly expanding planning team advises landowners and developers on complex schemes including highways and infrastructure, land promotion, appeals, and large-scale mixed-use schemes.

Debt recovery: The busy debt team handles debt recovery for many large clients, including high-street names. Significant investment in systems means clients now instruct Roythornes online and have 24/7 access to the current position on their matters.

Corporate and commercial: Led by Martin Jinks, the team is quickly gaining a reputation for high-quality work, and the recent appointment of additional senior level headcount is further enhancing its capacity and skills in this sector. Martin is developing an excellent reputation in dealing with complex construction and automation contracts.

Personal injury: Roythornes’ personal injury practice covers mainstream business together with specialised work involving claims against the MOD. The firm operates several helplines for major insurers and financial institutions.

Other offices: Nottingham, Birmingham, Peterborough, Alconbury.