Meet BDB Pitmans at MIPIM 2020

Jonathan is head of real estate and has extensive experience of commercial real estate matters, advising corporates, partnerships and individuals on acquisitions, disposals, landlord and tenant work, property finance and development projects.

Commonly advising at board level and sitting on client property investment committees, Jonathan enjoys providing strategic advice on property investment matters and aims to assist clients in realising value from their real estate assets.

Career highlights include:

• acting for a private healthcare charity in the site acquisition construction of a Hospital with an overall value of circa £25 million;
• acting for Clarion Housing Group on their King’s Cross leasehold premises to Google UK at a rent of over £1 million per annum; and
• acting for Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity, Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens Charity and Maudsley Charity on their property interests upon incorporation as independent charities.

David has over 35 years’ of experience in property law. He has advised on commercial, residential and leisure property including insolvency and investment portfolio work.

In his current role as a consultant, he connects clients and other contacts on new projects.

Career highlights include:

• acting for J. Sainsbury plc on various projects regarding out of town shopping centres where they were the anchor tenant;
• acting for a number of clients on the acquisition, management, and sale of shopping and office complexes nationwide, as investment properties; and
• acting since 1994 for an established owner and operator of various industrial estates in the South East of England including landlord and tenant management.

John is a partner in our corporate team and specialises in M&A transactions, IPOs, private equity investments. He is also on the BDB Pitmans Executive Board and is a non-executive director and investor in several technology companies and has been chairman of a medical devices company.

Career highlights include:

• sale of Ridgeway Motor Group to Marshalls plc for £107.7 million in May 2017 after 20 years acting for them from start-up to final exit;
• sale of Ocean IT Limited to Cancom in 2018; and
• funding rounds into Totaltec Oilfield Services Limited in 2018.

Karen heads up the construction team and advises developers, funders, institutional investors, contractors and consultants on major urban regeneration, infrastructure and commercial projects.

Career highlights include:

• acting for London / North East based developer on the construction, funding and letting of several different projects including an £80 million rail vehicle manufacturing facility in the North East, two university business schools, a sports club in the Midlands and a hotel in Cambridge;
• acting for the developer of a £40 million leisure and retail project in central Liverpool; and
• acting for the developer of a private rented sector project in the Home Counties exceeding the value of £100 million.

Richard specialises in planning law and the authorisation of major commercial and infrastructure projects. He has 15 years’ experience of guiding private and public sector clients through the planning process. He advises on all aspects of planning law and procedure on major residential, retail, leisure / stadium, energy, airport and rail projects.

He offers expertise in advising on planning, environmental / EIA, highways and heritage law and procedure, public inquiry / hearing / judicial review work, advising on compulsory purchase (including overriding rights of light and other interests) and compensation, and negotiating complex planning, highway and objector / landowner agreements.

Career highlights include:

• advising numerous national and south-east based house builders and investors on the planning of major residential and mixed use schemes and urban extensions, ranging from 50 – 4,000 units;
• advising a football club on the redevelopment of its stadium site to provide a new 60,000 seat stadium and related development; and
• advising on the promotion of 10 separate Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (energy / energy-from-waste / renewables, road, airport, leisure and rail freight interchange schemes) to secure Development Consent Orders.

Sarah is the firm’s deputy head of real estate and has a diverse practice which covers all aspects of commercial property, including acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant matters (including conditional pre-let agreements), all aspects of property management and property finance.

She also advises on development matters for both landowners and national and individual developers, including option agreements, sub-sales, conditional contracts, promotion and collaboration agreements. In addition, Sarah acts for developer clients in relation to the disposal of affordable housing to registered providers.

Career highlights include:

• exchanging on the acquisition of an office park for £7 million within 7 hours of receiving papers and subsequent funding;
• acting for a major utility provider across their entire portfolio of assets; and
• acting on the general management of a large country estate, taking it through the planning process and onto sale to a national developer for £13 million. This involved dealing with boundary issues, adverse possession claims, Network Rail restrictions and related section 106 disposals.

Emma’s specialism is in providing real estate advice to UK and off-shore clients, regularly acting for high net worth individuals, family offices, trust funds and investors. Her expertise covers all elements of real estate investment from acquisition, through to portfolio management, refinancing and disposal.

She also has a great deal of experience advising both landlords and corporate occupiers on complex leasehold structures, with clients ranging from established multi-national healthcare providers, to tech start-ups.

Career highlights include:

• acting for a US-based international healthcare organisation in its acquisition of its London HQ leasehold premises with an annual rent of £1 million per annum over a 10 year term;
• responsible for the management of an investment portfolio exceeding 50 commercial units with a mix of office, creative space, retail and restaurants in North London and managing the £50 million refinance of the portfolio; and
• acting as part of lead supermarket’s site acquisitions team and lead legal advisor on numerous schemes in the south east of England.

Phil specialises in property litigation, advising on all kinds of disputes arising out of landlord and tenant relationships, residential development, neighbour matters and trespass. Phil leads the Legal 500-ranked property litigation team in the firm’s Reading office, which acts for property clients of all sizes in bringing and defending a wide range of claims including all types of landlord and tenant claims (particularly 1954 Act work and break notices), Party Wall Act matters, contractual disputes arising in the course of site assembly, acquisition and disposal, as well as providing more specialist advice in connection with restrictive covenants, easements, and boundary issues.

He also has substantial experience in trespasser and protestor removal, including through use of Interim Possession Orders in appropriate cases.

Career highlights include:

• successfully advising the management company of a substantial private estate in north London in a claim establishing (amongst other things) the company’s right to control parking on several miles of estate roads, culminating in a trial at which the client was successful in every aspect of the claim and awarded indemnity costs;
• regularly acting for a FTSE 100 broadband provider on the defence of and claims for damage to its national fibre optic network and related infrastructure; and
• successfully advising landowners in First Tier Tribunal and then Upper Tribunal proceedings arising out of a claim for adverse possession flowing from what was initially a boundary dispute. The case was particularly noteworthy as the Appeal gave rise to several questions on which there is little or no authority for applications arising under Land Registration Act 2003 regime, including the interaction between self-exclusion from the land intended to be possessed and the requisite promptness for an application once the belief of ownership is challenged.