Porter Dodson LLP

porterdodson.co.uk

Evelyn Adfield

Evelyn is Partner and Head of Corporate Commercial. Evelyn undertakes all aspects of corporate and commercial work, specialising in business and share sales and acquisitions, joint ventures, reorganisations, shareholder agreements, partnership matters and commercial contracts.

Richard Baker

Richard is a Partner and Head of Family Department – he specialises in resolving financial remedy and cohabitation disputes. Richard is a trained collaborative practitioner.

Lucy Brown

Lucy is a Partner is the Family matrimonial team, acting for a wide variety of clients, including business owners, farmers, landowners and high net worth individuals.

Sharon Collier

Sharon is a Partner and Head of Private Client for the firm. Sharon has extensive experience in dealing with a range of private client matters, including Wills and Powers of Attorney, the administration of both estates and trusts, general tax planning and Court of Protection work, including Deputyship applications.

David Culshaw

David is a Partner in the Corporate Commercial team and Heads the Exeter office. David works with business clients across all sectors and particularly with clients in the rural, food and drink, professional services and manufacturing sectors, often with an international element. His key focus is working with owner managed businesses, small to medium sized businesses as well as start-up and growth enterprises and their investors and funders.

Chris Dickinson

Chris is a Partner in the Private Client Team. Chris primarily deals with individuals needing to put Wills or LPAs in place or those facing a bereavement who require assisting in dealing with the administration of the Estate.

Susannah Emson

Susannah is a Partner in the Private Client Team. She is a full member of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners (STEP) and has 15 years of experience in advising high net worth individuals, farming and business clients with their estate and succession planning. She also assists clients in creating vulnerable beneficiary trusts where appropriate and personal injury trusts for those who have recently received a compensation award.

Steve Farnham

Steve is a Partner in the Commercial Property team. He has extensive experience on a full range of commercial property services, having worked with a broad range of businesses, ranging from sole traders and partnerships to small owner-managed companies. Steve also acts for many rural businesses, land owners and farmers on a wide range of services.

Zoe Gaitskell

Zoe is a Partner in the Family law team. She is a Resolution accredited specialist in complex financial matters on divorce/separation, a trained Collaborative Lawyer and a member of the Law Society’s Family Law Accreditation Scheme. Zoe advises clients with complex financial affairs including those with businesses, farms, assets abroad, trusts and pensions in the context of relationship breakdown and pre-nuptial agreements.

Chris Green

Chris is a Partner and Head of Contentious Trusts and Probate at Porter Dodson. Chris advises and represents individuals, charities, executors and trustees, both as claimants and defendants, in respect of contentious trusts and probate matters.

Ben Hingley

Ben is a Partner and Head of the Commercial Property Department specialising in landlord and tenant work, development work as well as more general commercial land work advising on option agreements, conditional contracts and overage/uplift agreements. Ben is also Head of the Commercial Property's Renewables team, specialising in renewable energy and, in particular, solar farms and the legal issues that arise from this fast growing area.

Matthew Jackson

Matthew is a Senior Associate in the Corporate Commercial team. Originally from Northern Ireland, Matthew qualified as a solicitor in 2017 and started working in Belfast. In January 2019, he became dual qualified in Northern Ireland and England and Wales and relocated to the South West. Matthew joined Porter Dodson's Corporate Commercial Team in November 2020. Matthew works with a wide variety of commercial clients, ranging from sole traders and partnerships to directors and shareholders of small to medium-sized companies.

Kate James

Kate is the Managing Partner at Porter Dodson. Whilst managing the firm day to day, Kate still maintains her private practice, specialising in private client matters, including Wills, probate, trusts and inheritance tax planning. Kate specialises in dealing with agricultural and landed estates, agricultural successions and also conflicts in intestacy.

Gemma Lindegaard

Gemma is a Partner in the Commercial Property team. She advises clients on all aspects of commercial property transactions including sales and purchases, landlord and tenant matters, and refinancing. Gemma specialises in agricultural land and development sites acting for farmers, landowners and developers. She regularly advises on option agreements, conditional contracts and overage/uplift arrangements in connection with land and development projects. Gemma's experience across a broad range of property matters allows her to provide practical tailored advice and work closely with her clients to achieve their personal and business objectives. Having lived and worked in the South West for many years, she has a strong understanding of the local property market and the wider rural sector.

Michelle Mallon

Michelle is a Senior Associate in the Commercial Property team. She specialises in commercial property, advising on a wide range of transactions, and experienced in dealing with commercial property lettings, advising both landlords and tenants. She also gets involved in more general commercial work, including refinance and sales and acquisitions of businesses. Michelle works closely with our corporate commercial colleagues to help clients achieve their goals. Having always been based in Taunton, Michelle's detailed knowledge of the area gives her an appreciation of local issues that may affect clients, enabling her to assist in solving any problems that may arise.

Rebecca Marshall

Rebecca is a Partner and team leader of the family/children team. All aspects of work relating to children, including public and private law and adoption.

Tom Mottram

Tom is a Partner in the Private Client team. His specialisms include assisting clients with will preparation and wider planning for their estates and succession for the next generation, coordinating as necessary with other professionals to achieve the best possible outcome for the client and their family. This includes tax, trust and asset protection implications ad opportunities. Tom's clients include individuals, families, business and farm owners and those with disabled and vulnerable children and beneficiaries. In addition, he deals with powers of attorney, mental capacity and post-death planning for estates.

Julia Perrins

Julia is a Partner in the Family Law Team. She undertakes all aspects of matrimonial work, specialising in high net worth financial cases. She is a collaborative practitioner and trained mediator.

Laura Roper

Laura is Partner and Head of Employment. Laura acts for both claimants and respondents undertaking contentious and non contentious work, including drafting contracts of employment, staff handbooks and advising on employment policies and procedures. She deals with many types of Employment Tribunal claims including unfair dismissal, unlawful deduction from wages, breach of contract and discrimination. Laura also regularly advises both employers and employees in respect of settlement agreements and enter into negotiation concerning the same.

Louise Sanders

Louise is a Partner in the Commercial property team dealing with all types of commercial property work but specialising in leases.

Kate Shawcross

Kate is a Partner in the Employment team and predominantly acts for employers across a wide range of sectors, as well as senior execs and employees, undertaking all types of Employment work, including day to day HR advice, through to Employment Tribunal claims, and advising on the employment aspects of buying or selling a business.

Emma Starr

Emma is a Senior Associate in the Commercial Property team. She joined Porter Dodson in 2015 shortly after completing her LLB Law degree. Emma qualified as a solicitor in September 2019, following the completion of her training contract with the firm. Emma advises clients on a wide range of commercial property and rural matters. She also works closely with our Corporate Commercial Team assisting clients with the property elements of their business transactions.

Sarah Stone

Partner and Team Leader for the Yeovil Private Client Team and Sherborne Office .

Victoria Walker

Victoria is a partner in the Commercial Property department, specialising in non-contentious commercial property issues, in areas such as commercial landlord and tenant, investment and portfolio management and property finance.

Paul Watkins

Paul is a Partner in the Private Client Team and Heads the Bridport office. He has over 20 years experience in private client law. He advises individuals, families, business owners and farming clients on succession and tax planning and estate administration. He also acts as an Executor for clients and a Trustee in connection with family trusts and as an attorney managing individuals property and financial affairs.

Karen Watts

Karen is a Senior Associate in the Family team. She is an accredited specialist member of Resolution in complex financial remedies and private children law. Karen specialises in all areas of private family law and can assist clients with relationship planning, separation and divorce, resolving finances on divorce or issues surrounding child arrangements. Many of her clients have complex finances, including landowners, farmers, business owners, and public sector workers. Karen acts for non-married couples resolving property disputes arising on separation. She aims to be able to resolve all matters amicably, however in some cases Court proceedings are unavoidable. In those situations, she can assist clients with civil claims under TOLATA.

Sarah Young

Sarah is a Partner and Head of the Employment Team, she also leads the Primary Care Team. Sarah specialises in employment law and supports clients with hiring to firing and everything in between and beyond. Her work includes advising on disciplinary and grievance matters, sickness absence, performance management and complex discrimination and whistleblowing matters. She represents both employees and employers in the Tribunals and, with a background in corporate and commercial law, Sarah is also ideally placed to advise on redundancy and restructuring, enforcement of restrictive covenants and TUPE.