Welcome to Tristan Ward, new head of our landed estates and agriculture team

As we continue to recruit post-merger, we are delighted that Tristan Ward has joined us as a partner in our individuals department.

Tristan will lead our landed estates and agriculture team, providing comprehensive advice to individuals, trustees and institutional landowners, both in the UK and internationally, on all matters relating to landed estates, agricultural property and rural business activities.

In addition, Tristan will continue to advise clients on ultra-high value urban residential property matters, in London and elsewhere.

Tristan will be based in the firm’s London office but will work closely with the BDB Pitmans teams in Cambridge, Reading and Southampton to advise clients nationally.

Tristan has joined us from Macfarlanes, where he was head of the private client property group. He is a highly-regarded name in the field: Chambers and Partners ranks him in Band 1 in both the agriculture and estates category, and for high value residential property. The Legal 500 names him as a ‘Leading Individual’.

Tristan joins legal director Paddy Lynam. They, and the rest of the agriculture and rural property team, will draw on the resources and experience of BDB Pitmans’ wider private client team which offers a full range of services: from wealth structuring and international estate planning to immigration, and from tax compliance and philanthropy to disputes about wills and trusts, as well as meeting the classic range of private client needs such as wills and lasting powers of attorney.

Tristan has a wealth of expertise in advising on all aspects of residential and rural property, built over a 20 year career, including the acquisition and disposal of some of the finest UK estates. In 2018 he advised on the separate purchases of what were probably the highest value private estate and the highest value private residential property transactions in the country.

As a farmer’s son and a partner in his family farming and property businesses, Tristan has extensive practical knowledge in the management of rural property and farming matters.

Alongside his practice, Tristan is a member of the Agricultural Law Association, the National Farmers Union, the Country Landowners and Business Association and the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association.

Tristan says of his appointment:

‘I am delighted to join BDB Pitmans, with its long-standing leading reputation in private wealth for British and, increasingly, international clients. I look forward to helping develop the firm’s high value residential and rural estates and agricultural offerings and, working with my new colleagues across the firm, enabling clients to unlock the opportunities to grow and develop their estates and complex rural projects.’

Pitmans, based in Reading and Southampton, has been serving clients for over 140 years, achieving top tier recognition in the industry benchmarking directories, Legal 500 and Chambers UK. It has been recognised as one of seven best-performing ‘trailblazing’ firms in The Lawyer ‘UK 200’ report.

Bircham Dyson Bell, an award-winning ‘top 100’ UK law firm, has been advising individuals, charities and other not for profit organisations, private companies and public sector bodies since 1834. Based in London and Cambridge, it has been widely recognised through awards and in the legal directories across its practice areas and enjoys a unique heritage as a leading parliamentary firm.

Combined, the merged firm of BDB Pitmans has over 40 rankings in the Legal 500.