A specialist in advising developers and landowners on the purchase and sale of land for development purposes, Chris Mills joins Lodders’ Strategic Land and Residential Development team, having worked for a number of national and international law firms including Gateley and Gowling WLG. In his new role, Chris will support James Mottram, partner in Lodders’ Real Estate group, specialising in residential development matters and acting for a variety of residential developers and promoters.
Chris says: “Joining Lodders is an exciting opportunity to work with and learn from a team of high calibre lawyers within a forward-thinking and friendly environment. I am looking forward to applying my experience of working effectively and efficiently for major housebuilders as well as my eye for detail to deliver real value to Lodders’ clients.”
James Leighfield joins Lodders from Wright Hassall. Prior to this, he spent over four years at Band Hatton Button Solicitors in Coventry. In his new role, he will support Lodders’ head of Real Estate Mark Miller, specialising in strategic land and residential development matters and acting for a wide variety of clients including residential developers, commercial developers, and investors.
James says: “Lodders has an excellent reputation both regionally and nationally in the strategic land and residential development sector, and I am thrilled to be joining an award-wining team of dedicated sector specialists. This role offers me the ideal opportunity to work closely with clients to understand their business and commercial objectives and help their development projects to progress.”
Also bolstering the Real Estate Group in the Planning and Highways team is Samantha Amphlett, who joins Lodders from Warwickshire County Council where she specialised in planning and highways agreements and was the council’s lead lawyer on the HS2 project. Of her appointment, she says: “Having worked in a local authority for a long time, I bring extensive experience of how councils operate and view issues, which will be helpful in my role at Lodders. I have worked with Victoria Longmore, head of the Planning team at Lodders, on numerous agreements over the years and know that she will be a great person to work with and learn from.”
Family law specialist Katie Hurst joins Lodders’ top-tier family team headed up by Beverley Morris. Katie started her career at Harrison Clark Rickerbys as a paralegal in the dispute resolution team, before completing a training contract and completing seats in a range of legal areas. Katie joins Lodders as an Associate Solicitor and will assist and represent clients across all aspects of family law including matters relating to divorce, finances, children, and pre- and post-nuptial agreements.
Katie says: “I always want to learn from the best and joining the Tier 1 ranked family team at Lodders will enable me to do just that. I strive to achieve the best possible results for clients, whilst offering emotional support and understanding at what may be a difficult time for them.”
Also joining Lodders is James Anderson, solicitor in the Agricultural Law team headed up by James Spreckley.
Commenting on the firm’s latest new hires, Lodders’ managing partner Paul Mourton says: “We are committed to strengthening the future of the firm and investing in experienced, talented solicitors is integral to this strategy. This raft of appointments has been made in direct response to an increase in instructions from clients seeking specialist Real Estate, Agricultural, and Family law advice from Lodders. Our new recruits will bolster our sector-leading teams as well as our reputation for being one of the leading and fastest-growing law firms in the region.”
Lodders is a premier law firm in Stratford upon Avon, Cheltenham Henley in Arden, and Birmingham. Founded more than 235 years ago, the firm offers expert legal advice across a range of legal services including private client, commercial law, real estate and family law.
For more information, visit: www.lodders.co.uk
