Trowers & Hamlins LLP

Member of Interlaw

Julien Allen

Julien has over 25 years' experience in all aspects of commercial property transactions including large City centre development projects, investment sales and acquisitions and portfolio financing. He heads up Trowers & Hamlins' Hotels & Leisure Group. He has particular recognised expertise in forward funding and forward sale structures as well as development joint ventures. Julien specialises in the Leisure sector, acting on the establishment of restaurants and clubs for Richard Caring's Caprice/Birley groups, Ivy Collections, Hakkasan, Burger King UK, Dynamo Restaurants and Yamabahce as well as numerous other restaurant, club and bar operators and breweries.

Joe Armstrong

Joe is an Associate in Trowers & Hamlins' Intellectual Property team based in London. Joe advises on contentious and non-contentious matters across the full spectrum of intellectual property rights. Joe's experience consists of advising on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property and related rights, with particular experience working with clients in the oil and gas, real estate, pharmaceutical and engineering sectors. In addition to his disputes work, Joe has wide experience in brand protection and global portfolio management as well as non-contentious intellectual property matters, including licensing and support on M&A transactions.

Jacqueline Backhaus

Jacqueline specialises in planning, highways and compulsory purchase law and advises both the public and private sectors on all related matters. She advises on strategic planning policy, planning applications and is experienced in the negotiation of complex section 106 agreements for major development and regeneration schemes. She also deals with all associated highways agreements and highway related matters. Jacqueline has particular specialism in dealing with planning and enforcement appeals, having acted regularly as a solicitor advocate. She also is an experienced litigator, dealing regularly with High Court challenges and applications for Judicial Review. Jacqueline is experienced in the field of compulsory purchase, having acted for local authorities assisting with the promotion of compulsory purchase orders as well as having represented private individuals and businesses through the compulsory purchase process. She was, in particular, involved with the relocation of a significant number of businesses who were subject to the Olympic Compulsory Purchase Order. She represented a number of those businesses in their outstanding claims for compensation (including references to the Upper Tribunal of the Lands Chamber) and has dealt with a number of S17 LCA 1961 applications for Certificates of Alternative Appropriate Development. She was the lead solicitor in the case of Rooff v SoS [2011] EWCA Civ 435 and further to a successful appeal into the Court of Appeal, eventually succeeded in obtaining a valuable mixed use residential lead S17 Certificate for her client.

Sara Bailey

Sara is the Senior Partner of the firm specialising in real estate projects. She has over 20 years' experience in the real estate sector and has established herself as a trusted adviser to a range of private providers, local authorities and central government developers, advising them on complex public and private projects. Specialising in development, regeneration, PPP projects, partnerships and joint ventures, Sara, is often called upon for her expertise in providing innovative structuring advice – helping her clients to navigate and deliver complex, and often high profile, real estate projects and regeneration schemes.

Andy Barnard

Andy specialises in providing legal advice in relation to a wide variety of real estate projects. He works for a wide range of accommodation providers and investors including developers, central government organisations, Registered Providers, local authorities, contractors, joint ventures, banks and private equity houses. The accommodation projects in which Andy has been and is involved include build to rent, student housing, regeneration projects, affordable housing and key worker schemes. Andy is a regular speaker and commentator in relation to the build to rent sector at high profile industry conferences and events. His clients praise his straight forward approach and the confidence they have in him to deliver their projects on time.

Rob Beiley

Rob has over 20 years' experience advising housing associations, local authorities, developers and institutional investors on a broad range of housing related matters. With a deep rooted commitment to the housing association and local authority sectors, Rob is known as a trusted advisor to a number of leading providers in the sector. For housing associations, Rob advises on corporate governance issues, including matters concerning engagement with the Regulator, group structures (including housing association mergers and restructures) and participation in trading companies and joint ventures. For local authorities, Rob advises on the establishment of housing companies, council housing finance matters, housing development, ALMOs, shared services and other structures to facilitate housing investment) and on broader issues associated with different delivery mechanisms for housing (including joint ventures), as well as advising the local authority sector on social enterprise models and their promotion of and participation in charitable entities. More recently Rob has advised a number of the leading new entrants to the affordable housing sector, including advising Legal & General and Residential Secure Income plc on the registration of their For Profit Registered Providers.

Emma Burrows

Emma is a Partner and former Head of Trowers & Hamlins' Employment department, which she founded. Emma has specialised in employment law for over 30 years. She is known for her practical approach and finding solutions. Emma advises mainly on sensitive issues, managing senior staff exits, board disputes, employment structures and governance issues. At any one time, she manages a few complicated employment tribunal claims, working with other members of the team. She contributes to leadership development in the affordable housing, charities and health and social care sectors, and has written and contributed to guidance over the years. She co-wrote "Board member pay- what housing associations need to know", and is currently involved in speaking and contributing to Leadership 2025, the leadership development programme available exclusively to senior leaders from BME backgrounds working in the housing sector. During her career she's spoken regularly for the NHF, CIOH and at other sector events. Emma works closely with care providers and has worked closely with organisations providing social care in the last two years on sleep-ins, providing some advice to the No 10 Policy Unit as part of the discussion.

Alex Burton

Alex is a Partner in our Commercial Litigation team with over 30 years of experience in advising clients in complex and high-value commercial disputes both in the UK and internationally. He is primarily based in London but divides his time between our London and Gulf offices. Alex has significant experience covering a wide range of industry sectors, including financial services, energy and infrastructure, aviation and professional liability. His expertise includes matters involving commercial fraud, restructuring and asset management, in addition to disputes arising in connection with Islamic financing arrangements. Alex represents clients in court proceedings (in particular the English Commercial Court) and arbitration references. He has represented clients in court or arbitration proceedings in several jurisdictions, and has familiarity with various arbitral rules and arbitration centres. He has considerable experience of operating in co-operation with lawyers in other jurisdictions in litigation and arbitration. A substantial part of Alex's practice is focussed on clients who are based in or operate in the Middle East.

Stephanie Canham

Stephanie is National Head Trowers & Hamlins' Construction practice. She is a well-known and highly-respected commercial construction specialist with over 30 years' experience. Stephanie predominantly acts for private/commercial developers. Stephanie is a key adviser to many private developers including The Berkeley Group plc and all of its divisions (St Edward, Berkeley Homes, St William, St James, St Joseph and St George) for whom she has acted for over 20 years; Eco World and Anthology to name a few. Stephanie frequently advises purchaser-side clients on the construction aspects of significant complex developments and drafts bespoke contracts for clients to use across their developments.

Adrian Carter

Adrian is one of the firm's Managing Partners and is also the Head of Banking and Finance Adrian has over 30 years' experience of real estate finance with particular expertise in advising housing associations and lenders to them in relation to a variety of forms of funding, including syndicate and bi-lateral lending and borrowing, capital market issues and hedging arrangements. On the housing finance side Adrian leads the largest team of finance lawyers (including security charging lawyers) in the UK dedicated to the housing sector with unrivalled experience of servicing borrower and lender clients – with a team of over 35.

Alison Chivers

Alison has extensive experience advising on a wide range of corporate and commercial transactions including investments, acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, supply and distribution agreements, terms and conditions, confidentiality agreements and corporate governance issues. Alison specialises particularly in UK private company buy-out and M&A work acting for institutional investors, private equity houses, corporates and management teams on investment and divestments and management incentive packages. Alison has acted for clients operating in a wide range of sectors from strategic land development to manufacturing and distribution, but has particular expertise advising on transactions in the leisure, health, social care and education sectors.

Charlotte Clayson

Charlotte is a Partner in Trowers & Hamlins' Dispute Resolution and Litigation department, focusing on complex and high value commercial and public law disputes. Charlotte is also a specialist in Information Law. Charlotte has significant experience dealing with the full range of contractual and commercial disputes, sensitive investigatory work, judicial review and contentious procurement and planning. Her expertise in Information Law includes advising upon a wide range of Data Protection and freedom of information matters, navigating regulatory issues and working closely with clients to prepare for and deal with data privacy breaches. Charlotte acts for and advises clients across a range of industry sectors in the context of both High Court and Court of Appeal litigation, arbitration, urgent injunctive relief and dispute avoidance and resolution.

Scott Dorling

Scott has over 30 years' experience advising on a range of local government and wider public sector matters. Scott is recognised as a leading lawyer in the Social Housing world having advised on a range of highly significant projects, first as an in-house local authority lawyer and during his time at the firm on large scale voluntary transfers, PFI contracts, creation of TMOs, ALMO and other community led organisations during his time with the firm. Scott advises at the cutting edge of housing policy which in recent years has included advice to local housing authorities on the impact of HRA reform, the use of RTB receipts and on the establishment in significant numbers of local housing companies, including the first privately funded wholly affordable new build scheme for a local housing company. Scott's housing related activities include large regeneration schemes and Scott is often called upon because of his expertise in navigating the myriad complexities associated with mixed tenure regeneration including leaseholder issues, decant and demolition, procurement obstacles, tenant engagement and joint venturing.

Helen Fysh

Helen specialises in advising borrower and lender clients on bilateral and syndicated real estate finance. Helen's practice covers all facets of real estate finance, from commercial investment and development to housing finance acting for public and private sector clients. Helen has experience working across a range of sectors including logistics, student accommodation, healthcare and mixed use developments. She acts for borrowers investing through REITs, onshore and offshore groups and limited partnerships; and for both senior and mezzanine lenders providing conventional and Islamic finance. Recent experience includes advising a REIT on the refinancing of its loan facilities to facilitate the corporate acquisition of a portfolio of properties to add to its £125 million logistics portfolio; advising the partners of a joint venture on their debt funding and intra group loan arrangements to finance the development of a new £40 million student accommodation development; and facilitating the Shari'ah compliant group funding arrangements for overseas investors purchasing UK property through a Jersey SPV with conventional debt from a global asset manager. In the housing finance sector, Helen advises Registered Providers and local authorities providing and developing affordable housing. She has worked on a number of private placements acting for Registered Providers issuing notes to investors from the UK, US and beyond. She also advises Registered Providers in relation to the refinancing of their debt following mergers, transfers of engagements and other group restructurings.

Hannah Giebus

Hannah is part of the cross-departmental Energy and Sustainability group. She advises on a range of renewable energy and infrastructure projects including district heating/cooling, utility connections, micro-generation, renewables and storage, electric vehicles and the procurement of associated energy related infrastructure. Hannah has experience advising clients on heat networks and district heating concessions including the structuring and negotiation of concession agreements, O&M and metering and billing arrangements, customer supply terms and bulk supply arrangements. She also advises on utility connections (electricity DNO/IDNO and ICP and telecommunications), renewable electricity generation and storage, including power purchase agreements and connected regulatory issues relating to energy generation, supply, distribution and transmission.

Jonathan Grosvenor

Jon is a Senior Associate in the Banking and Finance team of Trowers & Hamlins' London office. Jon's practice focuses on all aspects of debt finance. He works on a broad range of domestic and cross-border transactions, including senior and mezzanine lending, syndicated structures, real estate investment and development, Islamic finance, general corporate lending and hedging arrangements. He has particular experience in real estate finance and debt capital markets transactions. Jon regularly acts for market participants at all levels of the capital structure, including arrangers, lenders, borrowers, sponsors, funds and issuers, particularly in the real estate sector.

Navinder Grover

Navinder is a Commercial Litigation Partner and Co-Head of the Trowers Restructuring and Insolvency Team. He has over 20 years experience and has been an affiliate member of the Insolvency Practitioners Association since qualifying in 2010. He is regularly instructed to advise Administrators, Liquidators, Directors and Creditors on high value insolvency disputes and business turnaround issues. He has recovered millions of pounds for creditors and office holders (Albermarle Hotels Limited v Ummat [2018]; Various creditors v Liquidators for Imperial Escrow Limited [2018]). His background is that of a Commercial Litigator and for many years he has run complex and high value disputes, often with a cross border element. He specialises in pursuing claims where there are issues of fraud or misfeasance and has regularly enjoyed success when advising in relation to partnership or shareholder disputes (Dalkilic v Pekin [2021]; Yaqoob v Khan [2020]). Navinder is one of a handful of Commercial Litigators nationally who has represented parties embroiled in the civil side of Restraint and Confiscation proceedings. His advice has resulted in them recovering very signficant sums that the state had improperly claimed to be proceeds of crime (arising from Confiscation Orders made in R v. Sharma [2007]; R v Takkar [2010]). He also advises on and pursues private prosecutions and is a member of the Private Prosecutors Association.

Ayda Habboush

Ayda has almost 15 years' experience as a corporate solicitor and is Head of Trowers & Hamlins' Hotel and Leisure group. She has been involved in a broad range of work, including mergers and acquisitions (both UK and international), with a particular focus on inward investment (from the MENA and ASEAN regions) in the real estate and hotels and leisure sectors, advising both owners and operators. Ayda specialises on advising clients on the acquisition of commercial real estate including offices, hotels, serviced apartments and student accommodation, as well as advising clients on the structuring of cross-border investments. She also has particular interest in the corporate structuring of Shari'ah compliant acquisitions of shares and assets and establishing Shariah compliant offshore funds. Ayda also regularly provides general corporate advice regarding joint ventures, group reorganisations and corporate insolvency.

Nick Harrisingh

Nick is a partner in the Corporate team, experienced in all aspects of corporate work and in particular private company M&A. Other areas of expertise include joint ventures, group reorganisations and restructurings, corporate structures for inward investment (including Shari'ah compliant real estate structures), AIM IPOs and fundraisings and commercial agreements, many with an international element to them. Key sectors include real estate investment (particularly build to rent and student accommodation), brewing and hospitality, technology and natural resources. Nick's clients include companies and institutions, directors, entrepreneurs and owner managers.

Caroline Hayward

Caroline advises on all aspects of IP law, including trade marks and passing off, rights in designs (registered and unregistered), copyright and database right, patents and rights in confidential information. Her practice includes both contentious and non-contentious matters and, on the contentious side, includes infringement, validity and enforcement issues. Caroline's practice also includes advice on advertising content including comparative advertising and misleading publicity, issues concerning domain names and the Internet, assignments and licensing of IP rights, and related disputes.

Tim Hillier

Tim is a Partner and Head of Trowers & Hamlins' Construction Disputes department. As a litigator specialising in resolving disputes in the construction, engineering and infrastructure sectors, Tim has worked in the firm's London and Dubai offices, taking conduct of domestic and international disputes on a wide variety of projects. Tim has worked on cases relating to residential developments, transport infrastructure (highways, rail, air and seaports), oil and gas refineries, sports stadia, hotels, power and desalination plants, water treatment, health care and waste to energy facilities. Tim also advises on the mitigation and avoidance of litigation risk as project counsel.

Kyle Holling

Kyle works with housing associations, charities, local authorities, NHS Trusts and private sector clients on a huge range projects relating to site acquisition, development, refurbishment, regeneration, financing, management and sales. These include acquisitions of new build and existing residential and mixed use sites and health and social care sector projects. Kyle also co-heads the health and social care team and focusses on the intersection of accommodation and care provision in that role. He acts for commissioners and private and not-for-profit operators on a wide variety of projects and joint ventures in health and social care including development (hospitals, care homes, extracare and supported housing), business and asset sales, local authority outsourcings and contract structures for the provision of care and support services (both bilateral and multi-party/consortium) arrangements.

James Huckstep

James specialises in and advises clients on procurement strategy, and the drafting and negotiation of construction documents including building contracts, consultant appointments, bonds and guarantees, framework agreements, and development and funding agreements. As Trowers & Hamlins' construction lead for the retirement/senior living and care sectors, James advises investors, and numerous developers and operators, who are active in the development of, among other things, much needed Integrated Retirement Communities. James works closely with ARCO, the body representing Integrated Retirement Communities, and has spoken at ARCO's conferences about issues such as building safety (and the implications for developments in the sector coming out of the recent legislative changes). Outside of senior living, James advises clients across the wider residential sectors including Build-to-Rent and Affordable Housing. This includes: • helping Registered Providers of Social Housing and Private Sector Developers on the construction aspects of, and the documentation for, their complex joint venture developments and large-scale regeneration schemes; and • advising on strategic partnerships, and the related construction and procurement support, in respect of a number of joint ventures to develop, deliver and operate substantial build-to-rent portfolios. In addition to residential focused developments, James has advised clients in connection with high value and iconic developments such as the creation of the new London Museum at the former market traders base in Smithfield Market and significant, high-value mixed-use commercial developments in Central London with complex sites, logistical challenges and associated development constraints.

Jeremy Hunt

Jeremy has worked in the real estate sector for over 20 years and specialises in providing property advice on large residential regeneration projects and joint ventures, large mixed-use development schemes and the acquisition and leasing of property. He also leads on large scale portfolio transactions and stock swaps. Recently he has been involved in a number of investor transactions and he co-leads the firms investment and development team in London as well as leading the residential portfolio transactions team.

Nicola Ihnatowicz

Nicola Ihnatowicz is a Partner in the Employment department at Trowers & Hamlins, and specialises in all aspects of human resources and employment law for public, private and third sector employers. She specialises in supporting businesses to become "Employers of the Future". Her expertise includes advising on sustainable workforces, achieving inclusivity, TUPE and business transformation. She also supports employers with difficult employee relations matters, such as changing terms and conditions, managing stress at work, reasonable adjustments, discrimination and harassment investigations, and restructures and redundancies. Nicola regularly advises and represents clients on Employment Tribunal matters and has recently dealt with complex claims for discrimination and harassment, whistleblowing and breach of TUPE.

Lucy James

Rachel Kerr

Rachel provides specialist rights of light advice to developers and affected neighbours on multi-million pound claims, threatened injunctions and lower value disputes. Rachel manages claims commercially and cost effectively through strategic negotiation, mediation where appropriate and an in depth working knowledge of the law in this specialist area. Rachel also specialises in property insolvency having advised on a number of the recent CVAs including a long-term involvement in the House of Fraser insolvency with close scrutiny of the CVA terms and the grounds for challenge.

James Lancaster

James Lancaster is a Managing Associate in the Commercial Litigation practice at the London office of Trowers & Hamlins. James is an experienced litigator who specialises complex and business-critical commercial disputes. He represents clients in complex multi-party and multi-jurisdictional litigation, as well as in arbitration and mediation. He is experienced in managing cases from pre-action through to trial and enforcement. The claims include contractual claims, shareholder and partnership disputes, warranty, earn-out and other corporate claims, banking litigation, aviation disputes, commercial fraud, High Court employment, disputes in the manufacturing, engineering and TMT sectors, professional negligence claims and trusts litigation. Much of his work has an international dimension. James has particular expertise in High Court matters arising out of employment and service contracts and has considerable experience in obtaining injunctive relief in relation to breaches of confidence and breaches of restrictive covenants.

Nicholas Levy

Nick has worked is Co-Head Trowers & Hamlins Litigation practice. Nick specialises in advising on and handling disputes in relation to the acquisition, development, management and disposal of real estate, including rights to light and other development related real estate issues, all elements of landlord and tenant law, property finance, property related insolvency (with a specialism in the insolvency of registered providers) and property related professional negligence. He acts for a range of clients, from developers and indemnity insurers to institutional and individual property investors.

Katharine Lewis

Katharine is an experienced banking and finance lawyer who acts for banks, financial institutions, corporates and public sector bodies in relation to a broad range of conventional and Shari'ah compliant finance transactions. Katharine's focus is on inward investment into UK real estate and she regularly advises both lenders and borrowers on senior and mezzanine syndicated facilities, bilateral loan facilities, security and other ancillary finance documents for use in the acquisition and development of all classes of real estate asset. She is also experienced in working with local authorities on project finance and the financing for investment into local housing companies.

Assad Maqbool

Assad advises commercial clients and public sector bodies on construction and projects. He negotiates and drafts development agreements, building and engineering contracts and professional appointments. He has particular experience of advising on alliancing partnering and framework agreements. He advises on all aspects of education sector projects and also specialises in advising on large-scale social housing refurbishment schemes. Assad also specialises in advising on the integration of technology into construction projects.

Paul Marco

Paul is a Property Litigation Partner and one of the Managing Partners at Trowers & Hamlins. He has over 25 years' experience advising on a broad range of property disputes acting for institutions, private companies, entrepreneurial investors and retailers.

Paul McDermott

Paul has worked with a range of local authorities, registered providers of social housing and other public sector organisations to develop public private schemes and create structures which enable multi agency service delivery to be effective. He specialises in advising Councils on major housing PFI/PPP projects and major regeneration projects.

Martin McFall

Martin McFall is a Partner at Trowers & Hamlins and heads up the firm's Pensions department. Martin specialises in pensions law and advises on all aspects of pensions law including standalone scheme advisory issues and the pensions aspects of corporate transactions and outsourcing. Martin's experience includes providing advice on matters such as scheme design, governance issues and the termination and administration of pension arrangements. He has particular knowledge of drafting and negotiating project agreements relating to PFI transactions including the pensions aspects of the Retention of Employment Model. He is experienced in advising authorities and contractors on admission agreement and guarantee bond issues in relation to the local government pension scheme and employees' benefits under the relevant regulations.

Patrick Morris

Patrick has a wide range of clients in both the public and private sectors and specialises in real estate development, including property aspects of major projects. Patrick acts for a number of large funds, institutions, developers, overseas investors, major corporate clients and charities. On the public sector side his clients include government bodies and many local authorities and he has extensive experience in the education and healthcare sectors. Patrick deals with high value and complex commercial property and mixed use projects which often require innovative consideration of potential development structures. He provides creative advice which is always solution driven. As well as development projects, he deals with forward funding and forward sales, complex sales and purchases, sales and leasebacks, income strips transactions, shopping centre purchases, management and sales, and secured lending.

Samir Nathwani

Samir's range of real estate experience includes acquisitions and disposals, property aspects of corporate/secured lending transactions, complex forward funding and development arrangements, and a broad range of landlord and tenant transactions (with particular experience acting for tenants). He has acted on numerous high-profile deals, including recently advising Global Net Lease on its purchase and leaseback of the 50-hectare McLaren Campus near Woking, Surrey. He also recently advised TR Property Investment Trust Plc on (and implemented) its complex restructuring of the Colonnades estate in Bayswater as well as the subsequent sale of the residential parts of the estate.

Tim Nye

Tim is Head of Corporate at Trowers & Hamlins and advises on all aspects of private equity including real estate private equity and investment, buy outs, seed investment transactions, divestments and disposals and management incentive packages. He works with investee companies whilst under private equity ownership advising on, amongst other things, group restructurings, refinancings, strategic sales, bolt on acquisitions and organic growth.

Eddie O’Hanrahan

Eddie has considerable experience acting for sponsors, funds, private companies and other borrowers on a variety of domestic and multi-national financings, both syndicated and bilateral. With a focus on 'all things real estate' Eddie's practice has a particular emphasis on property finance, corporate acquisitions, joint ventures and development/regeneration projects. His recent experience includes advising longstanding client Global Net Lease (GNL) on its £230 million cross-jurisdictional refinancing and helping GNL put in place its strategic long term funding solution to support its ongoing growth.

Chris Paul

Chris is Head of Trowers & Hamlins' Energy and Sustainability team, based in London. Chris has experience in a wide range of non-contentious construction and procurement matters both in the UK and overseas. Chris specialises in advising commercial clients, contractors, consultants and specialists on non-contentious construction and engineering law. He has particular experience in advising on procurement strategies and contractual structures. His work includes guiding clients through risk review/risk management exercises and the preparation of effective tender documents - including the drafting and negotiation of construction contracts, consultant appointments, collateral warranties/direct agreements, bonds and guarantees. Chris also advises on connected project agreements including facilities management, concession arrangements, operation and maintenance contracts and utility supply agreements.

Lizzie Pillinger

Lizzie is a Partner who acts for a range of promoters, developers, investors and operators in the private and public sectors. Her focus is on the living sector, particularly later living and private investment into affordable housing. Lizzie has led the real estate teams on some key joint ventures in the later living arena, as well as complex site acquisition and assembly for later living, affordable housing and build to rent investors and operators. She is one of the firm's key contacts for later living.

Rebecca Rees

Rebecca is a Partner and Head of Public Procurement at Trowers & Hamlins. Rebecca is a leading national expert in public procurement law, consistently ranked as among the world's leading government contracts lawyers. Rebecca has significant experience in advising clients in the public, private and third sectors on public procurement, subsidy control and building safety strategy issues. She advises clients on procurement strategy and structures, how to conduct flexible and compliant procurement procedures and compile objective and transparent evaluation models and guidance.

Douglas Rhodes

Douglas acts for clients across the public and private sectors, including residential and commercial property developers and property companies, housing associations, public authorities, title indemnity insurers, institutional pension funds, private individuals, entrepreneurs and occupiers of commercial and residential property. He specialises in development disputes (e.g restrictive covenants, adverse possession, rights of way, party wall issues), rights of light, service charges and leasehold management, contentious trusts, land transaction disputes and commercial and residential landlord and tenant.

Tonia Secker

Tonia's sector of expertise lies in social and affordable housing and she advises across the sector. She has over 20 years' experience advising both the public and private sectors on joint ventures, outsourcings and regeneration schemes and has particular experience of advising government agencies on funding arrangements for the delivery of affordable housing. Tonia advises housing associations and local authorities on major projects, regulatory and commercial matters and on their powers and functions. Tonia's work in the sector, particularly for Homes England, the Greater London Authority and local and combined authorities is extremely complex in nature. The work which Tonia undertakes for those bodies involves the creation of funding arrangements which underpin the delivery of thousands of new affordable homes across the country. The scale of public expenditure and investment supported by her work runs into many billions of pounds.

Amy Shaw

Amy has over 24 years' experience working for both public and private sector organisations in all aspects of the development projects. Amy acts for a broad range of clients, including registered providers, local authorities, developers, housebuilders and Homes England. She specialises in transaction structuring, real estate acquisition and sales, development, regeneration and has particular expertise in real estate based joint ventures.

Deborah Shumate

Deborah is a Senior Associate in Trowers & Hamlins' Employment and Pensions department, which she joined in January 2018. Deborah advises employers and trustees in relation to contentious and non-contentious pensions matters. Her recent experience includes advising employing bodies (including ALMOs and Schedule Bodies) on interpreting and applying the provisions of the regulations governing the LGPS, negotiating statutory conversions for employer bodies and guiding both the authorities, funds and employing bodies through this obscure legislative process.

Alice Stripe

Alice advises on contentious and non-contentious matters across the full spectrum of intellectual property rights. Alice's experience consists of advising on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property and related rights, including trade marks, passing off, copyright, design rights and confidentiality issues. In recent years, Alice has acted on a number of English High Court proceedings and has assisted clients on disputes before the EU and UK Intellectual Property Offices. In addition to her disputes work, Alice has wide experience in brand protection and global portfolio management as well as non-contentious intellectual property matters, including, licensing and corporate support work.

Helen Stuart

Helen is a Partner in Trowers & Hamlins' Construction Disputes team. Helen joined the team in 2012 having trained at Walker Morris LLP in both contentious and non-contentious construction. Helen has extensive experience in advising a diverse range of clients in relation to all contentious construction matters. As well as court proceedings, predominantly in the TCC but also in the Companies Court for insolvency related matters, Helen has experience of resolving claims through the pre-action protocol and all forms of alternative dispute resolution processes including adjudication, mediation and expert determination. Helen's focus is acting as a business protector for clients by seeking to minimise risk and resolving any disputes as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Helen has particular experience in advising clients on fire-safety related defects and building safety-related issues such as grant funding.

Victoria Thornton

Victoria specialises in the provision of advice on commercial transactions, state aid and public law. She has acted as lead solicitor on the development of a number of complex projects for public and private sector clients, including major regeneration projects, joint ventures, local authority companies and PPPs.

Simon Valner

Simon is a Partner in Trowers & Hamlins' Banking and Finance team, based in London. Simon is an experienced banking and finance lawyer who acts for banks, financial institutions, corporates and public sector bodies in relation to a broad range of conventional and Shari'ah compliant finance transactions. Simon's focus is on inward investment into UK real estate and he regularly advises both lenders and borrowers on senior and mezzanine syndicated facilities, bilateral loan facilities, security and other ancillary finance documents for use in the acquisition and development of all classes of real estate asset. He is also one of Trowers' lead UK partners in Islamic finance. He is also experienced in advising public sector lenders looking to lend into the UK Real Estate market.

Rob Walker

Rob is a Managing Associate in the Planning and Environmental team and specialises in planning, highways, compulsory purchase and public law. Rob advises both public and private sector clients on major development and housing-led regeneration schemes, as well as advising on complex section 106 and highway agreements. Rob is experienced in all aspects of the planning regime, from policy formulation through to the submission and determination of applications. He also frequently advises on community infrastructure levy, permitted development rights, viability related issues and planning appeals.

Rebecca Wardle

Sharron Webster

Sharron is a Partner in Trowers & Hamlins' Real Estate team, based in Londonl. Sharron specialises in providing corporate, governance and regulatory advice to a wide range of bodies and entities operating in the public sector, in particular advising on governance and regulatory issues for registered housing providers, new entrants to the housing market, health and care providers, charities, local authorities, local authority companies, and other social enterprise vehicles. One of Sharron's particular areas of expertise is advising on strategic, corporate restructuring, the establishment of new groups and creation of new group entities, mergers and group consolidations. Sharron acts for the broadest range of businesses, both big and small, and acts for some of the largest housing and care providers in the country. An example is her work on the merger of the two of the UKs largest care organisations to create Anchor Hanover Trust, a business with a combined annual turnover of half a billion pounds per year.

Gail White

Gail has over 10 years' experience in the real estate sector. She acts for clients in both public and private sectors including institutional and international investors, central government, local authorities and corporate occupiers. She is experienced in a broad range of transactions ranging from day to day estate management to complex acquisitions, disposals, regeneration projects and development agreements. Gail also has extensive experience in the education sector and has successfully advised on a variety of development agreements for this purpose. She acts for international investor clients acquiring and managing property in the UK, including Shari'ah compliant acquisition structures. She is also experienced in acting on Local Authority commercial and mixed use regeneration schemes and advises on complex "income strip" regeneration structures.