Mr Charles Arrand > Shoosmiths LLP > Milton Keynes, England > Lawyer Profile

The team at Shoosmiths LLP is co-headed by Kirsten Hewson in Solent, and Charles Arrand in Milton Keynes. Their combined experience includes advising on nitrate neutrality requirements, highways and infrastructure matters, environmental offences, and mixed-use development schemes. Utilising the knowledge that she gained while working at the Environment Agency, Joanne Sears is ‘an excellent practitioner’ who specialises in regulatory and criminal matters; she is particularly recommended for pollution and nuisance investigations. Kayleigh Chapman is also noted for experience advising local authorities, developers, and landowners.

With a ‘wealth of experience’, Shoosmiths LLP is highly regarded for its experience advising high-profile clients across the spectrum of health and safety matters. The team is led by Birmingham-based Hayley Saunders, following the retirement of Roy Tozer last year, and boasts both contentious and non-contentious advisory expertise, particularly in sectors such as defence, automotive, healthcare, construction and manufacturing. Charles Arrand, based in Milton Keynes, is an experienced regulatory crime practitioner, familiar with a broad array of health and safety investigations, prosecutions, inquests and inquiries. Philip Ryan, in the Thames Valley, advises clients, ranging from large corporates to SMEs, on serious and fatal accidents including prosecution and defence, as well as assisting with risk strategy. Joanne Sear, also in the Thames Valley, has a strong practice in inquests, as well as health and safety compliance. Rubina Zaidi, based in Milton Keynes, regularly assists regulatory bodies in health and safety prosecutions, as well as defending these.

The group at Shoosmiths LLP is considered ‘second-to-none’ by clients and is headed up by the ‘exceptional, no-nonsense lawyer’ Hayley Saunders, who works from the firm’s Birmingham hub and has strong expertise in providing non-contentious compliance advice and in defending clients in investigations and prosecutions. Major disaster response and management is a key area of specialism for the team, and one of Phil Ryan‘s prominent focus areas, while regulatory crime specialist Charles Arrand is described as ‘a star of the regulatory field’. Rubina Zaidi is also noteworthy for her work assisting with national public inquiries. Joanne Sear departed to an in-house role in June 2024, and former co-lead Roy Tozer retired from practice in June 2023.