At Keystone Law, Samantha Leigh plays a pivotal role in the department. Its agriculture and rural affairs team advises clients across the full spectrum of the rural industry. Clients include private individuals, developers, suppliers, landed estates, charities, manufacturers, and large corporates. Hugh Murphy has a wealth of experience in buying and selling country houses, farms, and agricultural land. Jon Close is another key member of the practice who has particular strength in construction and engineering matters.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Very professional and knowledgeable. Pleasant people to work with. Good communication. Would communicate outside of normal working hours if necessary.’
‘Hugh Murphy is very professional and he is also very pleasant to talk to. He takes time to explain things thoroughly. Hugh would also contact us outside normal working hours and weekends if there was something important to be dealt with or a deadline to be met.'
‘Exceptional attention to detail and knowledge of each case.’
'I can’t recommend Samantha Leigh highly enough. She anticipated issues before they arose and was always exceptionally responsive. We felt in safe hands throughout the conveyancing process, even when things inevitably went wrong with the sale or purchase.'
'Jon Close is especially diligent and meticulous, ensuring matters are dealt with swiftly. Once a strategy is in place he is great at keeping me, the client, apprised at all times. I know he can be trusted to deliver against any methodology that has been agreed and any strategy developments that evolve I am always kept informed through regular communications.'
'Jon Close is particularly knowledgeable in his field and I have always been very extremely satisfied with the quality of his advice and work. One of Jon's strong points, amongst many others, is his commerciality. Having a construction lawyer acting for us who is very commercially aware and industry savvy really adds weight to the advice being provided.'
'Keystone Law has a large team of experienced lawyers able to assist many businesses and individuals with wide-ranging specialist advice and in-depth industry knowledge in such areas as construction, agriculture and rural affairs, dispute resolution. When dealing with complex issues on construction or when advice is needed in multiple areas of law, dedicated teams can be assembled to achieve the best outcome.'
'Keystone encompass leading sector insight on all aspects of agricultural and rural law and have significant expertise in agricultural tenancies, health and safety, product liability, dispute resolution, environmental issues, planning and development, commercial contracts, wealth and tax planning.'
Key clients
- Nigel Jackson
- Vitruvius Management Services Ltd
- Pangdean Farm Limited
- Broadley Energy Limited
- Alexander & Georgina Millett
- David Charles and Trudi Charles
- Simon Goldthorpe and Yolanda Goldthorpe
- Chantelle Staynings and Stephen Longden
Work highlights
- Advised a longstanding private client, a fish farmer on how to respond to a threat of enforcement action relating to alleged unauthorised agricultural barn development.
- Advised Pangdean Farm Limited on the purchase of a partly unregistered, partly registered tract of 200 acres of farmland with dykes as boundaries in some places, dwellings, complex titles, an allocation under the Smallholdings and Allotments legislation and access issues.