Emyr Thomas > Sharpe Pritchard LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Assisting many local authorities, including a significant number of London Boroughs, Sharpe Pritchard LLP’s offering for local government clients spans the full range of services, advising on both contentious and non-contentious issues, including planning, construction, and infrastructure, education, administrative and public law, as well as procurement, corporate and ICT. The firm is well-known for its advice in the environmental and renewable energy space. The department is jointly headed by Peter Collins, Rachel Murray-Smith and Rob Hann. Key members of the team include litigation specialist Mari Roberts, parliamentary agent Emyr Thomas, planning expert Bernadette Hillman, who is well supported by senior associate Emily Knowles, and Steve Gummer, a key partner for infrastructure, regulated and net zero projects.

As the preferred representatives of returning officers, Sharpe Pritchard LLP enjoys an exclusive position advising in advance of and on polling day, and defending individuals in contested elections, with unsurpassed expertise in election petition challenges before the High Court. Electoral law and parliamentary regulations specialist Alastair Lewis oversees the team, which is further sought after by local authorities, individuals, and organisations in matters pertaining to Boundary Commission reviews and Electoral Commission rules and regulations. Emyr Thomas ‘has an acute sense of the responsibilities of returning officers’, and has been a familiar face in the most significant election petitions of the past decade.

‘A real specialist team’ in parliamentary and planning advice, Sharpe Pritchard LLP is a mainstay for public bodies pursuing the promotion of private bills, as well as opponents of infrastructure projects requiring approval by way of hybrid bills, DCOs, and TWAOs. Reputed for its high volume of work both promoting and opposing nationally significant infrastructure private bills, the team is sought out by local authorities, large landowners, and registered charities for assistance with opposing different stages of the HS2 railway project. The practice benefits from the acumen of Roll A Parliamentary Agents Alastair Lewis, who ‘exemplifies the ability to bring great expertise and experience to clients’, particularly in the energy and transport sectors, and Emyr Thomas, who is ‘knowledgeable, experienced, and well-connected’ in lodging objections to large infrastructure projects. Real estate specialist Aidan Dickinson lends his compulsory purchase law expertise to clients with land affected by infrastructure schemes and DCOs.