Team size: 5

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

Landsec has been involved in a lot of capital recycling to implement our strategy over the last 12 months, meaning we have had to make strategic disposals and acquisitions totaling over £1bn. The key ones were the disposal of our Accor operated hotels portfolio to Ares and the acquisition of the majority interest in the Liverpool One shopping centre from Grosvenor and ADIA – our first new shopping centre purchase since 2014.

Away from transactions, the issues around building safety and historic cladding remediation have been an important issue not just because of the liabilities and reputational impact but also because of the implications for our residential strategy in the future.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

The pandemic will stand out for many years to come. In real estate, we had to deal with the collapse of people paying a contractually agreed rent, effectively endorsed by government policy. That opened many people’s eyes to the nature of a lease contract in the absence of judicial enforcement. Engaging with policymakers who were always going to prioritise jobs in retail and hospitality over the income from property interests was very interesting, but we got a decent compromise in the end.

We also had to deal with some very basic challenges such as dealing with lots of notices that were physically served at our (empty) offices, sometimes by taping them to the front door. It made me realise how out of touch the law of service is with modern communications.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

Having a broad understanding of the law at a principles level is much more important than being a specialist or expert in a narrow field. We have external law firms who will always be better at specialist questions than us, and our role is to select and challenge that advice and have the knowledge to do that effectively.

Above that, a modern counsel has to understand the entire business, how it operates and how it makes money. The ability to focus on what really matters to the business and communicating that clearly to the external advisers is where we add the extra value.