England - London • Real estate
Watson Farley & Williams LLP
Watson Farley & Williams LLP offers comprehensive cradle-to-grave services in the energy, infrastructure, and transport sectors. Team head Martin Lucas specialises in offshore wind construction and project development. Barry Hembling provides both contentious and non-contentious support throughout a project’s lifecycle, from initial contract negotiations to dispute avoidance, with particular emphasis on real estate assets, especially in the hotel, leisure, and healthcare sectors. Emmanuel Ninos adds expertise in working with major utilities companies, developers, and contractors to the practice.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Barry Hembling is extremely thorough in all that he does. He is never flustered and always provides reasoned robust advice and legal positions in a fair and balanced way, and has a skill of articulating his argument always in a manner that seems to avoid confrontation such that the other side sees his point and can engage positively.'
‘Watson Farley & Williams cover all sectors of industry with unrivalled knowledge and excellent counsel.’
‘Barry Hembling is an excellent communicator, giving a thoroughly professional service at all times. Cannot recommend him highly enough.’
‘The team possess excellent technical knowledge and clear communication skills. They have collaborated closely with the client.’
- 'Jamie Bell is very driven and helpful. He is capable of creative thinking whilst also possessing strong technical knowledge and is a very good communicator. Jamie understands the problem quickly and seeks to find sensible solutions.’
‘Experienced and knowledgeable team. Keep in regular touch and provide excellent quality industry legal updates. Always contactable for high-level advice when required.’
‘The individuals are extremely knowledgeable about our business, our governance and what is important to us. They take the time to maintain regular contact even when not directly commissioned.’
‘I am very glad we opted for WF&W and in particular Barry Hembling. He clearly has the experience, and he has excellent legal knowledge and is a good communicator, which is important when dealing with material contracts. I am pleased we have Barry in our corner in order to best protect the business in a period of growth.’
Key clients
- The Wolseley Hospitality Group
- Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust
- Poplar Harca
- GMS Estates
- Zaha Hadid Architects
- BP Pension Fund
- Colas Limited
- Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm
- Vattenfall
- Ørsted
- Equinor
- Millennium Hotels & Resorts
- Hitachi Zosen Innova
Work highlights
- Advising the special purpose vehicles set-up by SSE plc and Equinor on all the construction elements for the development of the large-scale wind farms that are often referred to as the "Dogger Bank" offshore wind farm.
- Continuing to provide non-contentious construction law advice on a portfolio of real estate development projects for the BP Pension Fund (Ropemaker Properties), one of the UK’s largest pension funds.
- Advising Vattenfall on the development and construction of the 4.2 GW Norfolk Boreas and Norfolk Vanguard Offshore Wind Farms, one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Martin Lucas