Nikki Link

21 September 2024

Nikki is a Consultant in the Commercial Real Estate Team, working closely with our Banking and Finance team. She specialises in real estate finance (having acted for a wide variety of major UK lenders and financial institutions as well as for challenger banks and borrowers) as well as having a broad range of experience within commercial real estate with particular emphasis on real estate investment, and corporate occupiers, including the acquisition, management and disposal of commercial real estate, landlord and tenant matters.

Her practice focuses on the industrial and logistics, retail and office sectors, alongside some hotels and leisure, care homes and student accommodation work.

Nikki takes pride in drawing upon her commercial experience and excellent grasp of the commercial realities of the property sector (having worked in the property profession since 2005 in a commercial capacity prior to completing her legal qualification at a major city Real Estate practice in 2013), which serves to enhance not only her legal skills, but also ensures that overseeing client relationships and project management are key strengths of her day to day practice.

Outside of her day to day role, Nikki is a keen musician and has been involved in the renowned “Law Rocks” charity battle of the bands since 2009, enjoying success both in London and internationally.

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Nadine Gibbon

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Penny Elliott

21 September 2024

Penny is a Consultant in the Rural Land and Business team. She specialises in advising clients with multiple business interests on legal and strategic issues and her client base encompasses overseas investors, institutional property owners, landed estates and high net worth individuals.

Penny has an established reputation as an advisor to the owner/operators of five star and boutique hotels. Her ability to advise across property and business matters is at the heart of the service she provides to her clients in this sector.

She provides clients with a comprehensive service, often drawing together a range of legal disciplines to deliver a commercial solution. Penny is able to draw upon her experience as a private client lawyer to identify opportunities and solutions that will benefit her client’s private and commercial interests. She coordinates the requirements of her clients across the full range of legal specialisms and is noted by commentators for her understanding of how taxation and legal aspects relate to the business interests of her client. She has an exceptional understanding of the people behind the businesses.

Penny began her legal career advising farmers and landowners, she retains a great interest in the agricultural sector.

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Nadine Gibbon

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Mark Prevezer

21 September 2024

A Senior Statesman, Mark works closely with both our Corporate and Commercial Real Estate teams.

He joined Forsters as a senior consultant following a successful career at both international and City law firms, where he held positions including that of managing partner, senior partner and global head of real estate.

Mark is extremely well connected and known for offering his clients commercial, proactive advice in the capacity of trusted advisor.

For some 40 years he has advised global institutional clients, sovereign funds, family offices and global investors, especially from Asia and the USA, on high premium cross border corporate and real estate projects,

With strong, and proven, networking and business development skills, Mark is well known for giving strong pro-active advice, and for being hands on. A lateral thinker (he is a well known amateur chess player who has played the world champion Magnus Carlsen on 3 occasions), his skills are combined with a proven strength in developing strong personal and working relationships.

Transactions include, but are not limited to, trophy assets in gateway cities, mixed use developments, experiential based large projects, hotels, large student or senior housing portfolios, infrastructure, and substantial sole or joint venture developments.

Frequent and experienced speaker, and chair of panels, for international corporate M&A and real estate conferences.

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Nadine Gibbon

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Filippo Petteni

21 September 2024

Known for his commercial approach coupled with his specialist knowledge of the art industry, Filippo has an international practice advising art collectors (individuals, trusts and estates), galleries, auction houses and art industry businesses.

A member of the Dispute Resolution team, he has conducted litigation in both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and is also a qualified mediator in both the UK and US.

Filippo has extensive expertise in relation to group actions and brings a depth of knowledge to guide the clients with whom he works in relation to funded litigation. He has notable experience acting in relation to disputes over artwork authenticity and is an active member of the firm’s Art group.

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Nadine Gibbon

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Christopher Findley

21 September 2024

Christopher is a key advisor to landowners, farmers and rural land-owning institutions. He prides himself on providing clear advice in simple terms, offering solutions to both complex and everyday problems encountered by farmers, landowners and their families. He guides farming families through issues relating to succession to key assets and tax planning and, over 40 plus years, continues to guide the 3rd and 4th generation on their affairs.

Christopher has a particular specialism in advising on strategic land projects. He advises landowners on a wide range of option and promotion agreements to bring forward land for development and is experienced in advising groups of owners on equalising development gains and the property and tax intricacies of selling land for development.

He also boasts expertise in relation to farms and landed estates transactions, offering over 40 years’ experience in agricultural landlord and tenant problems and tenants as well as freehold owners on business restructuring for inheritance tax planning purposes.

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Nadine Gibbon

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Damian Greenish

21 September 2024

Damian Greenish has been in practice as a solicitor for some 45 years. Until his retirement as a partner in 2016, he was senior partner and then chairman of Pemberton Greenish LLP. He has been a consultant to Forsters LLP since 2021.

Damian has wide-ranging connections within the industry, having represented multiple London property owners, developers and investors over the years. His practice has centred on real estate and he is a leading authority on residential leasehold reform, having been involved in many of the landmark enfranchisement cases in the Supreme Court, House of Lords, Court of Appeal, High Court and the valuation tribunals. He is well known amongst London’s landed estates and was the principal legal adviser to the board of the Cadogan Group for over 20 years and is chairman of the Sloane Stanley Estate.

He is well known as a speaker at and as a regular chairman of the leading conferences and seminars as well as being a contributor to legal journals in this specialised sector of the law.

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Nadine Gibbon

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Alison Meek

21 September 2024

For over 25 years, Alison has acted for executors, professional trustees/fiduciaries and beneficiaries in some of the largest trust and probate disputes in this country and in the offshore jurisdictions. She has been appointed by the court to represent the interests of an estate in court proceedings. She also has considerable experience in the Court of Protection.

Ranked in The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for Contentious Trusts and Probate and in the latest Chambers high net worth guide, she is described in the directories as ‘a redoubtable litigator who is rarely beaten’ and a private client litigator who has ‘very sharp instincts for assessing the merits and likely outcome of a case’.

Alison is a co-editor of two of the best-known textbooks in this area, Contentious Trusts and Estates published in 2002 and International Trust Disputes, first published by OUP in 2012 and a second edition in 2019.

Alison is renowned for her purposeful and highly effective approach to resolving family disputes, backed by her vast experience and compassionate client handling skills. Although known for her robust litigation expertise, Alison prioritises a non-adversarial approach, expertly guiding clients through their options for resolving their disputes. She considers all forms of alternatives to court including mediation and negotiated settlement (ADR) and understands that ADR is frequently more likely to ensure a cost effective and better outcome for the client. She is prepared to play devil’s advocate with a client with a view to advancing possible avenues to settlement. She recognises the importance of a calm and dispassionate perspective in intense family disputes (which are rarely just about the money), while remaining acutely conscious of her client’s position and objectives.

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Nadine Gibbon

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Smita Edwards

29 August 2024

Smita has many years of experience in acting for both developers and investors in relation to real estate development and investment. She understands the requirements of those involved in different roles, whether as funders/investors, developers or occupiers and her experience covers a wide variety of sectors including business uses, retail, leisure, residential and student accommodation.

Acting for a client base with diverse property interests has provided Smita with a well-rounded understanding of the real estate market from the perspective of all participants. Her breadth of knowledge and experience in the sector enables her to adopt a pragmatic and commercial approach in delivering projects for her clients.

Smita is client partner for a number of significant clients of the firm. Many of her relationships with clients have been built over a period exceeding 20 years. For those clients with multiple assets and/or complex requirements, Smita leads teams of real estate lawyers dealing with transactional and advisory work, working in conjunction with lawyers in specialist teams such as Construction, Real Estate Disputes and Tax. Her clients include Fiera Real Estate, Patrizia UK, Octopus Real Estate, McDonald’s Restaurants and Wrenbridge Land.

She is one of the leading investment and development lawyers of her generation. She has advised a range of high-profile clients in this area and is a sought out advisor on significant and complex transactions. She works closely with her clients, acting as a business partner, to really get into the detail of a deal. Smita’s ability to mobilise and manage large, multidisciplinary teams is a key reason why she is regularly appointed by her loyal clients.

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Nadine Gibbon

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