Town planning – meet the partners at the City’s new law firm

In this week’s Estates Gazette, we speak to the partners at London’s new boutique planning practice, Town Legal, and get their thoughts on how to improve planning law. The firm unites five highly experienced solicitors – managing partner Patrick Robinson, Elizabeth Christie, Meeta Kaur, Claire Fielding and Simon Ricketts – with esteemed planning barrister Mary Cook, and aims to provide a unique, modern, high-quality service to clients, focusing on major mixed-use and commercial schemes and urban extensions in and outside London, as well as other projects that catch their interest. The partners tell the story of how “serendipity and alcohol”, to use Ricketts’ words, got the ball rolling and ultimately – through teamwork and a lot of effort – saw Town launch this month. Robinson, who joins the firm after 28 years at Herbert Smith Freehills, says that a key quality of the firm is that the six “all actually enjoy doing the work”. He adds: “In a big law firm – I have seen this increasingly over the years – the structure is such that, as the partners become more and more senior, they see less and less of the actual hands-on work. We have day-to-day involvement, and we absolutely mean to maintain that. That is a great differentiator with clients. They really want experienced people to deliver the best market practices and legal advice, and to do it in a cost-effective way.” The Town partners also explain the firm’s collaborative ethos, through which clients don’t just get the advice of just one lawyer, but can instead get the benefit of the different partners’ experience and expertise – including that of in-house barrister, Cook. And we get a rundown of some of the current projects they are working on, including Battersea Power Station, SW8, and the former Pinnacle site at 22 Bishopsgate, EC2. With the firm’s fresh approach in mind, we took the opportunity to  ask each partner what they would change about planning. Find the answers in our profile of the firm. And for more constructive criticism, we asked Ricketts to expand a little further on his “five things wrong with planning law” – listen to the podcast below. Read EG’s profile of Town Legal >>   • To send feedback, e-mail jess.harrold@estatesgazette.com or tweet @jessharrold or @estatesgazette