Dickinson Dees has served major land owners and the farming community throughout the UK for over 200 years and is indisputably the pre-eminent firm in the North of England for the provision of agricultural legal services. “Dickinson Dees is the dominant force in the region for agriculture and property law” (Chambers - A Client's Guide to the UK Legal Profession 2008).
The Agriculture, Farms and Estates Team is widely regarded as being the strongest team doing this sort of work in the North of England. The Team acts for over 75 substantial private land owners, both within and outside the region; it also acts for a growing number of land-owning organisations such as the National Trust and English Nature.
Specific expertise within the Team includes:-
• sales and purchases of farms and estates;
• sales and purchases of sporting estates;
• all other agricultural-related property work including rights of way, wayleaves, public access and telecommunications masts;
• common land and rights of common;
• agricultural joint ventures and partnerships;
• agricultural tenancies;
• rural commercial tenancies;
• management and contracting agreements;
• agricultural subsidies;
• planning and development;
• mineral extraction;
• environmental and waste management issues;
• partnership disputes;
• contentious issues, litigation, arbitration and tribunals;
• tax planning (including heritage law) and financial advice;
• agricultural landlord and tenant issues;
• windfarms.
The Team is lead by Simon Kirkup who is generally accepted to be the region’s leading agricultural law practitioner. Stefan Bainbridge is a key player in the region’s non-contentious agricultural property market and is descibed in Chambers as a "rising star". Jen Smurthwaite and Elizabeth Allen handle a large percentage of the contentious agricultural work in the region and are described in the Legal 500 as providing “superb” contentious advice. Marcella Shone has an excellent reputation in the rural market for strategic tax advice. Alexander Dickinson is a leading practitioner in estate and capital tax planning for Landed Estates. These, and others, give the Team at Dickinson Dees the all round experience necessary to deal effectively with all rural matters.
The Team also includes Andrew Farquharson, David Towns, Elizabeth Earle and Harry Chrisp. All of these have an extensive range of agricultural expertise. The Team is first class in terms of the quality and breadth of advice.
The Team contributes regularly to seminars, both internally run and by invitation, and also contributes to a number of publications.
Please view our newsletter for more information.
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