5-Part Online Educational Series
Introducing your Presenters
Mary Cook
Mary is a leading planning barrister, and prior to Town Legal was a member of Cornerstone Barristers where she served as Joint Head of Chambers. She is one of Town’s founding partners. Mary sits on the organising committee of the Oxford Joint Planning Law Conference and is a member of PEBA and the CPA. Mary has a wide range of experience from offering strategic advice to developers and land owners on large complex residential and commercial schemes (including in a CPO context), appearing at inquiries, hearings and plan examinations. She regularly deals with SEA/SA, SANG and heritage issues.
Clare Fielding
Clare is one of Town Legal’s founding partners. Clare spent 8 years at the Bank of England, 7 at Slaughter and May (where she qualified as a solicitor), 7 at Herbert Smith; and 4 at Gowling WLG before joining Town. Clare has a wide-ranging planning practice, focused in the main on major development projects in London and the South East, acting for private sector developers and landowners. Her high profile instructions include advising on the £9 billion pound Battersea Power Station redevelopment, acting for Sellar on developments in Canada Water and Bermondsey Street, advising St James on housing schemes in White City, and acting for Mount Anvil on its Western Gateway redevelopment at the Royal Victoria Dock.
Raj Gupta
Raj specialises in all aspects of compulsory purchase law. Raj has acted for the London Development Agency in promoting the Olympics CPO, for Transport for London in promoting various Dockland Light Railway extensions and the Silvertown Tunnel Development Consent Order, and for numerous objectors to compulsory purchase proceedings. Raj is particularly well-known for his expertise in contested land compensation proceedings. He has acted for the successful party in numerous high profile reported cases including Spirerose, Welford and Urban Edge. He currently acts on various high value, complex compensation claims against HS2, Highways England, and for Transport for London. Raj is an elected member of the national committee of the Compulsory Purchase Association and the head of the Compulsory Purchase team at Town Legal.
Simon Ricketts
Simon is one of the founding partners of Town Legal. Prior to co-founding Town Legal in December 2016, he was a partner at King & Wood Mallesons (previously SJ Berwin) for 17 years. Simon specialises in planning, compulsory purchase and local government law, particularly in relation to UK major mixed-use development schemes and infrastructure projects. He has been ranked as the country’s most highly rated planning solicitor for the last eleven years running in Planning magazine’s annual survey. He writes the popular simonicity blog.
Louise Samuel
Louise joined Town Legal in October 2019 after 16 years at Linklaters, most recently as Head of Planning. She has a wide range of experience across the UK, including securing consent for town extensions and energy/ infrastructure projects. Whilst on secondment into the Government, Louise was one of the team who wrote the suite of energy National Policy Statements. Louise particularly enjoys advising on complex developments within central London. She has acted on a number of the City’s iconic tall buildings (the Cheesegrater, Walkie-Talkie, Can of Ham, 1 Undershaft, Gotham City) and major Global HQs (UBS, Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs). She also has a number of live projects in Southwark at the moment, acting for clients such as Native Land, Great Portland Estates and CIT. Louise was recently listed as one of the Planner’s ‘Women of Influence’ for 2020.
Paul Arnett
Paul is an Associate at Town Legal. Paul worked in Government at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and the Department for Transport before joining Town. While in Government, Paul advised on the CPO reforms in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017, and the revisions to the national Compulsory Purchase Guidance. Paul also advised on high profile called in and recovered planning matters and the 2018 revisions to the NPPF. Since joining Town last year, Paul has undertaken a broad mix of work including advising on the £9 billion pound Battersea Power Station redevelopment, acting on various high value, complex CPO compensation claims against HS2, and acting for a major landowner in its objection to the A303 Stonehenge DCO.
Ricardo Gama
Ricardo is a Senior Associate at Town Legal. Ricardo has a broad practice encompassing largescale mixed use developments in London, urban extensions in the south east, compulsory purchase advice, and judicial review (both for interested parties and for claimants). Particular interests include all forms of planning and environmental litigation and advising on grey areas in the use classes. He has written a chapter on the UK’s cost-capping regime under the Aarhus Convention, in a forthcoming collection on the Convention due to be published in 2020. He has also provided advice on the drafting of judicial review provisions in the Well-being of Future Generations Bill, a private members’ bill currently going through Parliament.
Victoria McKeegan
Victoria is a Senior Associate at Town Legal. Victoria trained and qualified at Slaughter and May and then worked with Duncan Field in the Planning Team at Norton Rose Fulbright prior to joining Town Legal. She has advised on a number of development projects and infrastructure schemes and on a variety of planning matters. Her experience includes advising on planning applications, enforcement and heritage matters, drafting and negotiating planning and highways agreements, and advising on the planning aspects of real estate, corporate and financing transactions. Key experience includes advising The Crown Estate on a number of redevelopment schemes in London’s West End, advising Olympus Property Holding Limited on the proposed £1 billion refurbishment and redevelopment of Olympia London Exhibition Centre and advising London City Airport on its c. £350 million City Airport Development Programme.
Spencer Tewis-Allen
Spencer is a Senior Associate at Town Legal. He advises on all aspects of planning law and has advised (and continues to advise) on schemes which are complex, high profile and often contentious, many of which have resulted in planning appeals. He works nationwide on large new residential settlements and has vast experience across the London Boroughs. Spencer has a particular interest in viability and has written the first comprehensive legal planning guide for Lexis Nexis on “Viability in Planning” first published in October 2017 and which continues to be updated as this area changes. Spencer has also written a chapter on Planning Law Due Diligence in “Risk and Negligence in Property Transactions” published by the Law Society, September 2018.”