Shoosmiths LLP

Paul Knight

Paul is a partner and head of the Birmingham property litigation team. Paul acts for developers, investors, corporate occupiers and landlords of property in a whole range of contentious property issues. Paul advises in claims to possession of land, litigation concerning applications for landlord's consents, break notices, rent review and the renewal of business tenancies. Paul also regularly advises on issues effecting property which arise from insolvency and in relation to licensed premises. Paul focuses on advising clients early in a transaction, with the aim of preventing a potential dispute from escalating to court. He has represented many clients at without prejudice meetings and mediations. Paul's approach is to work with a client to identify the issues early on and set a clear course for dealing with those issues. His recent project experience includes: arranging service of over 80 price notices under options which will form a substantial residential development; representing a client in a multi-million pound dilapidations claim; and advising in relation to a landlord’s rights to develop adjoining land of a large tenanted shopping centre.

Kate McCall

Kate is a partner in our real estate disputes team.  She deals with all types of property litigation work from the provision of pre-emptive advice and risk analysis through to complex proceedings in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.  Kate acts for institutional landlords, developers, investors and corporate occupiers across the entire property sector. Kate has been practising for over 16 years.  She is recognized for her reasoned and proactive approach to dispute resolution.   Her core areas of expertise include lease renewals (contested and uncontested), rent and service charge disputes, rent reviews, dilapidations, contested break options and property insolvency, as well as the provision of strategic land assembly and tenant re-engineering advice.  Recent projects include: advising an AIM listed retailer on the contentious elements of the £250m acquisition of a competitor's leasehold portfolio; dealing with the restructure of a property portfolio on behalf of a FTSE listed retailer.  Advising on all aspects of the transition of 600 properties from the old franchise business model to a new bespoke model; acting for a plc investor/developer on all elements of site assembly and clearance, including the release of rights to light and other easements in the context of a £4.3bn extension and redevelopment project.

Elinor Sandbach

Ellie is a Partner in the Real Estate team and has experience in all aspects of property and landlord and tenant litigation, acting for a wide range of clients including public and private companies, national retailers, banking clients, commercial developers and occupational landlords. In particular, Ellie has extensive experience in dealing with retail clients, both from landlord and tenant perspectives, including working closely with numerous retail banking and high street clients. Ellie has dealt with a large range of matters, including business lease renewals (contentious and non-contentious), dilapidations disputes, service charge disputes, tenant insolvency, rights of way and easement disputes, break notices, rent arrears recovery, contractual interpretation issues and issues surrounding landlord’s consent. Ellie also specialises in agricultural law, being experienced in work governed by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 and the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, including termination of tenancies, recovery of possession and compensation issues.