James Souter

Private wealth, real estate and construction.

James specialises in all disputes relating to the use and occupation of land. He also has a significant advisory practice aimed at dispute avoidance. He has a wide-ranging client base which includes developers, investors, corporate, leisure and retail occupiers, and high-net-worth individuals. He has considerable experience acting for clients in the higher courts and specialist property tribunals. James is recognised as an expert in the field of leasehold enfranchisement, which has been developed through acting for one of the largest London estates as well as other landlords and a wide variety of tenants. He also has a strong practice advising developers in relation to rights to light and other neighbourly matters. Experience: advised Derwent London on a large central London development site, including devising and implementing a vacant possession strategy and mitigating a significant rights to light risk; acted for Scottish Widows on a multimillion-pound damages claim by a tenant of a trading estate on the outskirts of London – the tenant succeeded in the High Court but the decision was subsequently reversed by the Court of Appeal; acted for the Howard de Walden Estate on a wide variety of ground-breaking claims which have helped to clarify the law in relation to the enfranchisement of flats; advised the Direct Line Group in relation to the successful exercise of a complex conditional break clause in the lease of a large office building in Bristol.