"Vivienne Williams is one of the best. A leading practitioner who knows how to test and probe the tricky legal issues in a case."

Legal 500 2025

"Vivienne has an exceptional knowledge of rural property dispute matters."

Chambers UK 2024

"Vivienne is one of the leaders in the rural space and very experienced in the area. She is probably the best in the space and that will be undisputed."

Chambers UK 2024

"Vivienne Williams is an absolute leader in her field, with an awesome reputation across the agricultural property world. She is extremely personable, but also completely unflappable and focused on the task at hand."

Legal 500 2024

"Vivienne Williams is a leading figure in her field and in the sector nationwide. She is exceptionally focused and calm, providing clear leadership and razor-sharp insight into both legal and strategic issues. She is assisted by a range of extremely capable and able associates with deep and reassuring agricultural expertise, including Erica Williams"

Legal 500 2024

"clients appreciate her quietly competent manner and unequivocal advice"

Chambers UK 2023

"knowledgeable, experienced, through and authoritative with clients"

Legal 500 2023

"She is great with clients, has so much knowledge and is great at putting across the options and creating a way forward for a solution to the dispute."

Chambers UK 2022

I head up the Agriculture team at Michelmores and I advise on a broad range of contentious agricultural matters, helping clients to navigate their way through difficult issues in a constantly evolving sector.

My expertise includes agricultural property disputes, contractual disputes, co-ownership and trust disputes. I have particular expertise in landlord and tenant, succession and  farming partnership disputes and my practice also covers estoppel claims, rights of way, possession claims, natural capital issues, issues relating to the potential development of land, agricultural banking and insolvency.

I am often brought in to provide strategic advice at the outset, but in more heavily contested matters I attend mediations and take cases through arbitration, Tribunal or court proceedings.

The experience that I have gained in advising on contentious matters leads me to have a unique insight into advising on the pitfalls to avoid when dealing with partnership formation and dissolution, the grant or surrender of tenancies and complex restructurings including the division of land as family businesses evolve.

My client base is broad and spread across England and Wales.  I act for farming businesses, entrepreneurs, land owners, estates, lending institutions, receivers and local authorities.

I regularly lecture to the RICS and CAAV and to groups of accountants.  I contributed to the LexisNexis Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, Agricultural Tenancies Volume and also to the 10th Edition of Scammell, Densham and Williams’s Law of Agricultural Holdings.

Recent experience

Advising a family member on the implementation of a corporate demerger of a multi million pound farming company to allow them to trade separately from their family. This involved delivering strategic tenancy advice and working alongside my corporate colleagues to deliver the demerger, as well as providing advice on the impact of various integrated family trusts.

Acting in Tribunal proceedings brought about by an application for succession to a tenancy protected by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 and connected High Court proceedings to determine the validity of a notice to quit.

Leading on providing strategic advice on the prospects of obtaining vacant possession where agricultural land is earmarked for development.

Acting for the successful defendants in Williams v Williams [2022], a case involving a family farm in South Wales where issues arose following the parents death in relation to proprietary estoppel, partnership law and the interpretation of a will.

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Williams, Vivienne
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