Solicitor – Admitted 2003
Elizabeth Newson – outstanding top of the pile service. Incredibly diligent and her calm, imaginative and firm manner leads to efficient negotiation of sticking points and rapid settlement of documents for the benefit of all parties.
Elizabeth is my first call for any new land purchase, promotion agreements or land sale. She always makes herself available and is incredibly thorough; whether it is a simple transaction or a hugely complex one with many parties, she is always on top of what needs to be done. She is calm and manages the process and the people brilliantly. She is robust as well as pragmatic, finding solutions to knotty problems. Everyone enjoys working with her, which means a smoother and quicker legal process, and so better outcome every time!
Overview
I am a Partner in Michelmores’ Real Estate team. I have worked across the full spectrum of commercial property in my time as a transactional real estate lawyer but in more recent years I have focussed my practice around residential development and strategic land. I advise land promoters, regional and national housebuilders, local authorities, landowners and landed estates. By acting “on both sides of the fence” I am able to bring to bear insights that are gained acting for developers when acting opposite them, helping to push transactions to a successful conclusion. My expertise includes advising on the acquisition and disposal of land for development, conditional contracts, option agreements, promotion agreements, collaboration agreements and overage arrangements. Housing is a key part of any political agenda and with many current issues impacting the sector including climate change, zero carbon, nutrient neutrality and biodiversity net gain, it is an exciting and technically challenging area within which to practice.
Having grown up on a farm I enjoy working with clients in the rural sector. I am currently working with a number of Landscape Recovery projects on their due diligence requirements as well as advising landed estates in relation to the property-aspects of intergenerational transfers.
Recent experience
Advising a regional land promoter in relation to full life cycle of promotions including in relation to new promotion agreements, option agreements, speculative acquisitions as well as disposals including to regional and national housebuilders of sites for 40 – 300+ dwellings and ancillary disposals of care home sites and school sites
Advising landowners in relation to option and promotion agreements relating to strategic land for residential development
Acting for a landed estate with significant landholdings north of Manchester in relation to its strategic land including high value sales for both residential and commercial development
Assisting a landed estate in Wales in relation to the intergenerational gifting of a substantial part of the estate
Acting for a landed estate in Devon with their strategic land and other property requirements including advising on the property aspects of transferring the estate to the next generation
Acting for a number of Round 1 and Round 2 Landscape Recovery projects, advising as to their due diligence proposals for submission to Defra and leading on the delivery of large scale due diligence exercises.
Acting for regional and national housebuilders in relation to the acquisition of residential development schemes unconditionally, conditionally or pursuant to option agreements
Acting for the trustees of a family trust on the disposal of land to a national housebuilder on an unconditional basis pursuant to a promotion agreement involving two other parcels of land, drawing on specialist advice from colleagues in order to navigate capacity issues when one trustee lost mental capacity, working closely with the promoter’s solicitors and the trustee’s attorneys to find a way to enable exchange and completion to occur within the challenging timescales set
