Leon is an Associate in the London Real Estate team advising on real estate dispute resolution and planning.
Leon has a unique practice spanning matters across the firm's specialist real estate dispute resolution and planning teams.
He advises on all areas of property litigation and alternative dispute resolution, including possession claims and contentious landlord and tenant work such as commercial lease renewals, break clause disputes, tenant arrears/insolvency, service charge disputes and dilapidations claims. He has experience working with institutional investors in the context of property asset management work and, alongside the transactional real estate team, on large-scale development matters and sales/acquisitions.
He also acts on a range of contentious and non-contentious planning law and has experience in the preparation and examination of large-scale energy and infrastructure DCO applications as well as planning applications under the TCPA 1990 for major non-NSIP development. He advises on judicial reviews (on both claimant and defendant side), compulsory acquisition and necessary wayleaves, Habitats Regulations issues and planning reform. He also has a growing practice advising on the Environmental Information Regulations.
Background
Leon has an MA in Law from Cambridge University (Jesus College) and qualified as a solicitor in 2022. As a trainee, he did a six-month secondment in the Legal (Disputes) Team at IBM.
He is a member of the National Infrastructure Planning Association and Property Litigation Association.
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- Gatwick Airport in relation to its DCO application for the Northern Runway Project, to bring the airport's existing Northern Runway into routine use and to reconfigure various aspects of the airport's infrastructure
- Sizewell C in successfully defending at High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court permission stage a judicial review brought against the grant of the Sizewell C new nuclear power station DCO by a local objector group, as well as in relation to pre- and post-commencement implementation advice
- AQUIND in relation to the redetermination of its DCO application for a proposed electricity interconnector between the UK and France, including on the bespoke closed material process established to facilitate consideration of representations from the Ministry of Defence
- bp in relation to its proposals for a carbon capture and storage facility in the North Sea (the Northern Endurance Partnership project), including representations in the Hornsea 4 DCO examination and related advice
- ElecLink in relation to the operation of its electricity interconnector between the UK and France
- an institutional investor on a possession claim against a company that had trespassed on its industrial estate, including successful County Court proceedings and defence of an appeal, as well as subsequent enforcement by a writ of possession and control
- a landowning estate on a disputed option agreement, involving multiple interlinked expert determinations and issues arising from a suite of planning permissions
Sectors
