Shoosmiths LLP

Real Estate

Sarah is a Partner in the Real Estate team and is Head of Planning. She advises on complex planning matters, with particular expertise in large-scale regeneration, infrastructure and mixed-use development schemes. She has over 25 years’ experience acting for developers, investors and public sector clients on high-profile projects across London and the UK.

A significant part of her practice focuses on compulsory purchase, including advising on the promotion of and objections to compulsory purchase orders, development consent orders and Transport and Works Act orders, acting for both promoters and objectors, as well as associated compensation claims. She regularly acts on major transport, energy and utilities infrastructure schemes and am experienced in managing the legal and strategic complexities these projects involve.

Sarah advises on significant regeneration and development projects, including high-rise, residential-led and mixed-use schemes, often with complex infrastructure interfaces. She is particularly focused on developing strategies to unlock delivery and manage risk on challenging sites, including the negotiation of planning, highways and delivery agreements.

She has extensive experience advising on technical and complex areas of planning law, including CIL mitigation strategies, enforcement and listed building matters, CLEUD/CLOPUD applications, and permitted development and fallback strategies.

Sarah leads and develops the firm’s planning practice and work closely with real estate, finance and corporate teams to deliver integrated advice across the full project lifecycle. She is known for a pragmatic, commercially focused approach and for guiding clients through complex consenting processes and negotiations.