Wilsons

Wilsons

wilsonsllp.com

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Peter Bourke MRICS

Peter Bourke MRICS

Peter is the firm's senior partner and part of the  Property & Commercial Litigation team.  Peter deals predominantly with agricultural rural property issues including freehold disputes and landlord and tenant problems. His freehold work mostly relates to adverse possession and rights of way. The landlord and tenant matters cover commercial, residential and agricultural property. His particular specialist area is agriculture with AHA succession tenancy disputes being a key element of his work. He deals with the issues faced by farmers, landlords and tenants. He advises many farming businesses on partnership problems. He usually finds a pragmatic solution for the benefit of his clients. As a qualified Chartered Surveyor, Peter has a detailed understanding of the problems facing both landlords and tenants.
Anthony Edwards

Anthony Edwards

Anthony heads up the firm's Employment Team and is also the firm's Client Service and Complaints Partner. His instructions from employers cover a wide range of sectors, including commercial, charitable and educational organisations, as well as private landed estates. He also advises senior managers/executives throughout their careers, from recruitment to exits. He has been a regular speaker at various seminars (including Wilsons' Agrilaw event and Salisbury Big Business presentation) and has been instructed by clients to provide training/coaching to management level staff.
Michael Ellis

Michael Ellis

Mike is a partner in our Property & Commercial Litigation team. Mike specialises both in contentious property and commercial disputes. His property practice is broad and varied but he has a particular interest in disputes concerning commercial property. These range from contested 1954 Act lease renewals, dilapidations/diminution in value claims (specifically commercial lease dilapidations), forfeiture claims and service charge disputes. Whether the instructions relate to residential or commercial property, Mike is regularly instructed to advise in connection with possession claims, disputes involving breaches of covenant and easement disputes, as well as all types of landlord and tenant disputes. Additionally, Mike frequently handles residential leasehold enfranchisement claims and claims relating to the right to manage. He advises on all stages of proceedings, including in the High Court, Court of Appeal, and in disputes proceeding in the Property Tribunals. Mike's commercial practice includes claims for breach of contract, restrictive covenant disputes and claims involving professional negligence. Mike is also regularly instructed by clients to recover debts, and he advises on all stages of enforcement of judgments.
Tim Fullerlove

Tim Fullerlove

Tim is a partner in our Tax & Trusts team and works in both our Salisbury and London offices. Tim advises both UK-based and international individuals on the management of their wealth and personal affairs, with a particular focus on tax and estate planning.  He also works with lawyers, trustees and trust companies in a wide range of foreign jurisdictions on behalf of their clients.  Tim also specialises in advising on tax issues that arise in the course of litigation, in particular trust and estate disputes.
Peter Jeffreys

Peter Jeffreys

Peter Jeffreys is a partner in the charity legacy team.  Peter specialises in charity legacy administration and the resolution of problem estates for charities.  He also acts for charities in Court of Protection cases. Peter has a special interest in dealing with cases of probate fraud for charities. Peter's background in private client work means he is uniquely well placed to advise charities and individuals on complex and problematic will cases. His combination of practical experience, and a sensitive and diplomatic approach, is much in demand. Peter chairs and speaks at our hugely successful seminar for charity legacy officers, which takes place in London annually in March, and was also a popular speaker at the firm's seminar for military charities in London.
James Johnson

James Johnson

James is a partner in our Corporate & Commercial team advising on commercial matters for a wide variety of clients. James' work includes private company mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, investments and fundraisings, shareholder agreements, LLP and partnership arrangements and commercial contracts. He has extensive experience in a number of commercial sectors including consumer goods, motor vehicles, construction and aggregates extraction and also advises a number of professional partnerships.
Jane Lonergan

Jane Lonergan

Jane Lonergan is a partner and head of the Property Team.  She specialises in commercial property with a particular emphasis on charity land transactions, and also deals with large and/or complicated land transactions. Jane acts for many of the best known charities in the country, advising on the entire spectrum of property issues affecting charities as well as assisting with complicated charity restructures and charity mergers. In short, Jane helps charities with all matters involving property. Jane is very well known in the field of charity property and contributes regularly to legal publications.  She wrote the chapter on Charity Property for the Solicitor's Journal 'Expert Guide'.  As the subject matter expert, Jane lectures other legal professionals (both solicitors and barristers) on both commercial property and charity property.
Frances Mayne

Frances Mayne

Frances Mayne is a partner and head of the Mental Capacity team. She specialises in capacity, Court of Protection, trusts, powers of attorney, and deals with legal issues relating to clients who are elderly, disabled or vulnerable. She acts as a professional executor, trustee, attorney and Court of Protection deputy. Frances has spoken at seminars for accountancy firms in connection with mental capacity issues, at The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (Hants, Wilts & Dorset) on capacity issues for farmers and businesses, at Wilsons' Agrilaw event, and at the Case Managers Conference.
Dominic Ogden

Dominic Ogden

Dominic is a consultant in the Commercial Property team. He is based in the Salisbury office but spends almost half his time working out of the Wilsons London office. Dominic handles a broad range of commercial property work. He has dealt with numerous complicated and high value transactions, often working closely with our corporate team and other professionals on corporate acquisitions and de-mergers involving large commercial property portfolios. His practice includes dealing with the sale and purchase of commercial buildings and development land, commercial leases (acting for both landlords and tenants), promotion agreements and options and mineral extraction agreements.  He has acted for a wide range of clients from overseas corporate investors, wealthy UK and overseas private investors, well-known national charities, 'top 10' firms of surveyors and accountants, landed estates, breweries and pub companies.
Mike Parker

Mike Parker

Mike has been the firm's Managing Partner since November 2014 and has overall responsibility for the business.  He works closely with the other members of the management team to ensure that clients receive a consistently high standard of service and that our lawyers and other staff are properly supported.  His leadership style is founded on the principle that great teamwork is the key to success. Mike's specialism is litigation and dispute resolution and he advises individuals as well as businesses on a wide range of issues.  He has particular expertise in property cases concerning title, boundaries and rights of way.  Mike’s practice also covers professional negligence and high value company/commercial disputes including breach of contract, share sales and injunctions.  He is recommended by The Legal 500 2016 for commercial litigation. Mike has been listed in The Lawyer's Hot 100 2023. This respected annual list from leading legal magazine The Lawyer celebrates pioneering and creative lawyers across the entire profession in the UK. The Lawyer says: "Wilsons managing partner Mike Parker is a pragmatic law firm leader whose mantra is “control the controllables”. In other words, while the market continues to be buffeted by global economic headwinds and turmoil, Parker sees his role as making sure the individuals and teams at his Salisbury stalwart firm are as motivated, engaged and inspired as possible."
Salim Patel

Salim Patel

Salim is a Partner in the Farms, Estates & Landowner Development team.  He joined Wilsons in November 2021 and specialises in non-contentious agricultural and rural land and property matters.  Salim acts for a wide variety of landowners including landed estates, charities, farmers, family farming companies, partnerships and private individuals. His practice includes dealing with the sale and purchase of strategic land for development (including advising on overage arrangements, options, promotion, landowner collaboration and hybrid agreements), the sale and purchase of farms, estates and rural land and acting for landlords and tenants with agricultural tenancy matters. Salim specialises in a range of other matters including renewable energy projects, the grant of commercial leases of rural property for diversification purposes and the grant of easements for utility, other strategic purposes and farm business tenancies. He is particularly interested in the management of natural capital and the challenges and opportunities faced by owners of rural property in this arena.  Salim has experience of acting for wildlife charities in connection with the purchase of land for nature reserves and for other clients exploring the opportunities presented by new schemes for environmental land management and bio-diversity net gain and also the potential use of conservation covenants.
Sue Russell

Sue Russell

Sue is a Partner in the Property team.  Sue's focus is predominantly in relation to estates, farms and rural land. She advises individuals, trustees and institutional landowners on matters relating to the management of their rural property holdings, including sales, purchases,  landlord and tenant issues, agricultural tenancies and sporting rights. She also assists with planning and development work including the preparation of Promotion Agreements, Options and Overage deeds in order to bring land forward for development. Sue also has extensive experience in renewable energy projects including solar farms, battery storage and payments for environmental services/ sustainability with the aim of maximising rent and royalties for the landowner.
Sian Scanlon

Sian Scanlon

Sian is a partner in our Corporate & Commercial team.  Sian's practice includes private company M&A, business acquisitions and disposals, investments & fundraisings, private equity transactions, joint ventures, reorganisations, shareholders' agreements, LLPs and partnerships, corporate governance and advisory matters and commercial contracts across a range of sectors including manufacturing, software, life sciences, professional services and technology.  Sian's extensive experience in advising both owner managers in selling their companies and buyers on the acquisition trail means she has a strong pedigree in helping business and individuals make the most of their opportunities and she has a pragmatic, focused and accessible style.  In addition, Sian has particular experience in advising professional service LLPs and partnerships on their partnership agreements and member governance.
Jonathan Stephens

Jonathan Stephens

Jonathan is a partner in the Tax & Trusts team, and has an unusual breadth of experience in strategic planning for clients with private and commercial interests. Jonathan is an expert on structuring for farms and landed estates, particularly in relation to partnerships, trusts and alternative arrangements. On the corporate side, he often advises business owners on succession, options and incentives, and capital tax planning. Jonathan acts as trustee for a number of substantial trusts involved in development land, farming interests and commercial businesses. Jonathan is the author of a series of practice notes on the Practical Law Company website on the law and practice relating to farm partnerships, and he has had a series of articles published in Farmers Weekly on forming partnerships, bringing in new partners, and ending a partnership. Jonathan is a frequent speaker on the subject of structuring and planning for farms and estates, and regularly provides seminars for accountants and surveyors.
Kate Stockdale

Kate Stockdale

Kate is a Partner in the Residential Property department. She works on a range of property transactions including sales and purchases as well as new build purchases, sales by auction, first registrations, lease extensions, new leases and re-mortgages. Kate has undertaken work for a wide range of clients, including charities, companies with their buy-to-let portfolios, executors, first time buyers and more vulnerable clients (such as those represented under a power of attorney or a Court of Protection Order and those selling their properties to move into sheltered housing or care homes). Kate also works closely with the private client department within Wilsons to assist them with property matters connected with tax planning.
Ben Thornton

Ben Thornton

Ben is a partner in the Property & Commercial Litigation team.  He deals predominantly with property disputes and his clients are landowning individuals and companies and charities. Ben's recent cases include disputes relating to easements (including rights of way), boundary disputes, adverse possession, development and building, restrictive covenants, professional negligence, and both residential and commercial landlord and tenant. With experience of mediations, arbitrations, adjudications and court hearings Ben will utilise the most appropriate procedure to resolve a dispute and he is also often asked to advise as to how to prevent disputes arising in the first place.
Belinda Watson

Belinda Watson

Belinda Watson is a partner in the Farms & Estates team of our private client department.  She specialises in providing strategic advice on all areas of wealth preservation and succession planning, typically to the owners of landed estates, large farms, family businesses and heritage chattels and properties. This involves advising on wills and trusts, lifetime giving, partnerships and the application of inheritance tax exemptions and reliefs (such as agricultural or business property, heritage property and maintenance funds).  Belinda represents clients from a wide geographical area across the country including the south coast, Yorkshire, Cumbria and Shropshire.
Charlotte Watts

Charlotte Watts

Charlotte is a partner in our Will & Trust Disputes team.  Charlotte advises on contentious trust and probate and legacy administration problems, including Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 claims, will validity, construction of wills, problems with executors and trustees, proprietary estoppel and the Non-Contentious Probate Rules. Charlotte also deals with ex gratia claims, lost wills, joint bank accounts and lifetime gifts. She regularly advises on proceedings in the Court of Protection including statutory will applications (where the court makes a will for a person who does not have the mental capacity to make his own) and has a special interest in this area. She is committed to resolving disputes in a sensitive and tactful way, being mindful that they can be extremely difficult emotionally as well as financially.
Torsten White

Torsten White

Torsten White is a partner in our Tax & Trusts team. He advises on all aspects of trust law, wills, powers of attorney and capital taxation, and specialises in advising individuals, trustees and partnerships on succession and capital tax planning in relation to farms and landed estates. Torsten advises a number of owners of homes, land and chattels of national heritage quality on aspects of conditional exemption and setting up and administering maintenance funds. He acts for clients in respect of offers of both land and chattels in lieu of inheritance tax.
Rupert Wilkinson

Rupert Wilkinson

Rupert is a private client lawyer in our Tax & Trusts team. His work is primarily planning with trusts and wills, with the tax effects of planning options an important consideration. His clients are mostly individuals, trustees, and executors.  He also acts for companies and partnerships on trust and tax matters with a 'private client' element. Part of Rupert's work has a foreign dimension, whether it is acting for a UK based client who owns assets outside the UK, an international client with UK assets, or in some cases, international clients with trusts but no personal connection to the UK.  He also acts for clients who are planning to come to the UK on a regular basis and want to ensure they are UK tax compliant.