England - South East • Real estate
Paris Smith LLP
The Paris Smith LLP property and planning group is singled out by one client as ‘the perfect place to go for expert advice’, covering the full spectrum of real estate work for major names within the property finance, leisure, and public sectors. John Mansell leads from the Southampton office, bringing extensive expertise on land acquisition and disposals to the group, while the ‘fantastic’ Joanne Spittles regularly handles complex development matters and acquisitions. Rachel Saint focuses on development agreements and conditional contracts, and Winchester-based Stuart Allen deals with structured lending proposals. Claire Long specialises in landlord and tenant issues, while Janet May boasts over 25 years’ experience in the public and private sector. Lisa Busby routinely advises technology companies, while Hannah Winchester acts for national retailers. Sean Hogan is another key contact.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘The property and planning department at Paris Smith proved to be the perfect place to go for expert advice. They adopt a very collegiate and professional approach, are well respected in the industry, communicate very well, build constructive relationships between the contracting parties' legal teams (which is so important) and are also really nice and decent to deal with.'
'They have all the expertise you need to guide you through what can be a minefield. Costs are clearly laid out and all the work was delivered within pre-agreed budgets.’
‘Joanne Spittles is fantastic, consistently demonstrating not only an incredibly detailed technical legal understanding of land and property development - a complicated area fraught with risk - but also outstanding commercial and negotiating skills, and strong interpersonal skills to succinctly explain complicated issues and enable properly informed decisions to be taken.'
'I could not recommend Joanne Spittles highly enough as one of the most impressive legal professionals I've dealt with.’
‘For a large business they are very friendly and approachable. I'm not a huge customer but I always feel like my business is valued. With a wide range of skills I have yet to find a matter they cannot help me with. Also what I like is that I have a few key contacts I deal with and if my issue needs to be handled by a different person within the firm they will direct me to the correct person.'
'What make them different is they will make sure I get looked after and follow up. It's the small things that make the difference. This is all backed up my simple and clear billing - which is done with a bit of common sense. They are about more than just billing!’
Nice to deal with the same skilled people year after year. My two main contacts are Lisa Busby and Joanne Spittles - both have given me excellent service dealing with commercial property matters. I have not had a problem at all in over 10 years. In fact I cannot see me dealing with anyone else for my property matters. From simple things like answering emails or taking phone calls, both have given first class service. They have an excellent attention to detail. Also they know their key area inside out!’
Key clients
- The Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society Limited
- Parkview Retail Limited
- Private Jersey-owned company (owner) and Hamdon Gate (developer)
- Le Gallais Group
- Private landowning trust
- Hobby Craft Group Limited
- Co-operative Group Limited (Co-op)
- Bourne Leisure Limited
- Hillier Nurseries Limited
- Castle Trust Bank PLC
Work highlights
- Advised Hillier Nurseries on the £17.5m acquisition of Rosebourne, a company with a portfolio of three garden and homeware centres in Solihull, Aldermaston and Andover.
- Advising The Co-operative Group on its acquisition programme for new stores.
- Advised Castle Trust on £10m worth of funding for local residential portfolio investors, which included a variety of residential investment property types, including flats and HMOs.
Lawyers
Leading individuals
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
John Mansell, Rachel Saint, Janet May, Stuart Allen