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Philip Brown
Philip Brown
Philip is a Partner in our Real Estate team and leads the firm’s developer team. He has expertise in a wide range of real estate work with particular emphasis on commercial and residential development (both immediate and strategic) and the securing of development and project finance. Philip’s clients are made up of national, regional and local developers, promoters, housing associations, landowners disposing of land for development and banks and alternative lenders. Philip has been ranked highly in numerous Legal500 and Chambers rankings over the last decade. Outside of work Philip enjoys spending time with his young family and is a passionate sports fan; in particular he enjoys following the Exeter Chiefs and, in the summer, Somerset County Cricket Club.
Nicola Gooch
Nicola Gooch
Nicola joined Birketts in August 2025 and is a Partner in our Planning and Environmental Team. Nicola specialises in planning law, with a particular expertise in mixed use regeneration projects and enabling developments. She acts for a wide-range of clients, including house-builders, land promoters and development companies; retail developers, investment funds; care home providers; sports clubs; educational institutions and agricultural businesses. Nicola regularly advises clients on natural capital schemes, including the creation of habitat banks, nutrient neutrality schemes and navigating water neutrality concerns. She is also known for her ability to help clients navigate the intricacies of the Community Infrastructure Levy and its implications for project finances. Nicola is recognised as a leading individual in both Legal 500 and Chambers, and has been highly rated in Planning Resource’s survey of planning lawyers for the last three years. She is a regular columnist for The Planner magazine. Nicola regularly shares insightful blog posts on her LinkedIn profile.
Stephanie Kingdon
Stephanie Kingdon
Stephanie has significant experience in all aspects of general property and commercial landlord and tenant disputes, in particular relating to managing and mitigating risk in transactional work. Stephanie advises on a wide range of contentious commercial property matters, and her experience extends to complex, high profile and politically sensitive advisory work. She has dealt with real estate litigation in both the High Court and Court of Appeal and has resolved disputes through mediation and arbitration. In addition to “traditional” property disputes, Stephanie also advises on planning-related matters including judicial reviews and statutory challenges.
Patrick Wetherall
Patrick Wetherall
Patrick leads the firm’s developer sector and is Head of Real Estate Group. With expertise in all aspects of commercial property disputes, whether property or landlord and tenant, he has acted on several multi-million pound claims. These relate to development, dilapidations and disrepair, options, agreements to purchase, contractual loss of profits, restrictive covenants, injunctions and easements. Patrick also has extensive Court of Appeal, High Court trial and arbitration experience, and has successfully resolved over 25 matters at mediation. Focused on taking a pragmatic approach to litigation and dispute resolution, Patrick always considers what the client wants and how to get results – whether that be through proactive and forthright litigation or a more conciliatory approach.
Sacha Wooldridge
Sacha Wooldridge
Sacha leads Birketts’ Tier 1 ranked immigration team, providing practical, client-centric immigration solutions to private clients and businesses alike. Sacha works holistically alongside other experts to provide international mobility pathways that factor in other considerations including international tax, social security and employment law compliance – ensuring clients make optimal relocation decisions  based on their family and lifestyle priorities. Sacha has a wealth of experience supporting businesses from start-ups to FTSE 100s across all sectors including financial and professional services, engineering, FMCG, energy and technology. Sacha provides end-to-end immigration support for business with a deep personal commitment to providing a friendly and personable point of contact with the highest quality service and technical advice – recognising that moving people internationally is both critical for business and can be a challenging time for individuals and their families. Sacha is also able to support business through its key growth milestones – advising on the immigration implications of mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and TUPE transfers and helping business navigate the latest geopolitical challenges. Sacha also enjoys supporting individual private clients. Sacha advises on family and non-sponsored visas as well as British nationality and passport applications. Sacha is experienced in supporting high net worth and high profile individuals with more complex immigration needs, including investors, entrepreneurs and economic citizenship applications and has experience with supporting musicians, artists, creatives and working with professional sports organisations. In assisting private individuals Sacha provides an appropriate immigration solution, delivered with discretion, as a tailored service in partnership with your team/preferred third party advisors. With a passion for politics, Sacha enjoys working on immigration policy and is a regular attendee at the Westminster All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) for Migration and also for Visas and Immigration, is an active member of the ILPA Economic working group and participant in the BEIS, Professional and Business services sector deal immigration sub-working group. Sacha is also  a regularly attendee at the various political party conferences to represent the interests of business and spoke on a panel alongside Yvette Cooper MP at the Labour Party conference in autumn 2018 and was quoted in The Observer in 2024.