- Tel:
- Work 01277 633014
- Web:
- www.geoffreysearle.com
- Email:
Geoffrey Searle
- Tel:
- Work +441277 633014
- Email:
Position
Noted in ‘The Legal 500’ 2008 as providing ‘outstanding quality of service’, veteran planning solicitor Geoffrey Searle has wide experience of all kinds of development proposals. He has advised clients (including landowners, developers and lenders) on maximising the potential of property assets, including in periods of economic decline. He works closely with architects, surveyors, planning consultants and other professionals to develop effective teams for negotiations and appeals, large developments and sensitive or controversial proposals. His recent experience includes cases in Westminster, Camden, Kensington and Chelsea, Islington, Barnet, Greenwich and other London boroughs, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and other south-eastern counties, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and other East Midlands counties, Cumbria and Yorkshire. The range of recent developments includes residential; residential and commercial mixed use; live-work; renewable energy; leisure developments; and developments susceptible to coastal erosion, flood risk and environmental impact issues. He is also noted for dealing with novel and complex legal agreements with local planning authorities. In addition to planning applications and appeals, work types include listed buildings and demolition of and extensions to buildings in conservation areas; local development framework development plan documents; enforcement notices; lawful development certificates; judicial review; and statutory challenges in the High Court.
Career
Qualified 1968; assistant clerk of Brentwood District Council 1969-73; assistant solicitor 1973-77, partner 1977-94, head of planning 1980-88, managing partner 1988-92, Denton Hall & Burgin; founded current firm in 1994. Publications of note: ‘Development Land Tax’ (1985).
Member
FIABCI (International Real Estate Federation), president British Chapter 1996-97; Law Society; City of London Law Society (Liveryman of Worshipful Company of Solicitors); Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; Country Landowners and Business Association.
Education
Bancroft’s School (1963); College of Law (1965 and 1968).
Leisure
Athenaeum, walking, family history, railway travel and modelling, grandchildren (four, to date).
Practice Areas
Administrative and public law; Local government; Planning