Recruitment Takes IM Property Division To 28 Partners And 150 Qualified Staff

National law firm Irwin Mitchell is expanding its Property Division with the recruitment of three new senior associates to its Northern office teams. Jill Crawford is joining the Planning & Environment team, Sarah Swann the Real Estate transactions team, both primarily based from the Manchester office and Thomas Freeman is joining IM’s National Real Estate Disputes team and will be based in the Sheffield office.

The new appointments take Irwin Mitchell’s Property Division to 28 partners and 150 qualified lawyers. Both Planning and Environment (P&E) and Real Estate Disputes (RED) sit within Irwin Mitchell’s Property Division. P&E is now a team of ten and RED a team of 20.

Jill Crawford will split her time between Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester and Birmingham office.

She joins from BLM where she was a Senior Associate in the Environment and Regulatory Team. Jill has a wide experience of advising on environmental legal matters including advising in relation to enforcement actions and investigations undertaken by the Environment Agency and local authorities in respect of environmental incidents, prosecuting environmental offences and advising in relation to criminal investigations including evidence gathering and interviews under caution.  She also advises businesses in defending against enforcement action and environmental prosecutions by local authorities and the Environment Agency, including appealing against enforcement notices issued by the Environment Agency such as Stop Notices, Suspension of Environmental Permit Notices and Revocation Notices.

Jill also has considerable experience in advising business on effective environmental risk management systems and ongoing compliance, advising insurers in relation to public liability policy extensions to cover limited environmental liabilities and advising internal law departments in relation to environmental due diligence and transactional support for real estate and corporate transactions.

She advises on the Contaminated Land regime and advises and defends in relation to breaches of nature conservation law; licensing and habitat/species protection.

As Claire Petricca-Riding, Head of P& E at Irwin Mitchell says, “Jill is a great addition to our P & E team and swiftly follows on from the appointments of Senior Associate Tracy Lovejoy and Associate Victoria Tague just before Christmas, enabling us to expand our environmental law offering to clients.”

Sarah Swann has joined Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester office from Knights in Manchester. She joins the transactional team, which recently recruited Stelios Coutsavlis as a new partner, also from Knights.

Sarah has considerable experience in all real estate transactions, but predominately acts for corporate investors and occupiers. She advises both landlords and tenants with acquisitions and disposals of both freehold and leasehold properties, including pre-lettings. She also deals with general asset management and secured lending.

Sarah’s has expertise working in the retail and leisure sectors; but her experience extends to dealings with all types of commercial premises. She has a strong reputation in the local Manchester real estate marketplace.

Thomas Freeman has also joined from Knights.

Thomas has considerable experience in all forms of property litigation but has particular expertise in commercial landlord and tenant matters (including lease renewals and the exercise of break options) and disputes concerning covenants, rights of way, boundaries, rights of light and the Electronic Communications Code. 

Thomas has worked with a wide range of clients, ranging from individuals to investors, property development companies, charities and businesses operating in the healthcare sector.

Danny Revitt, Joint Head of Real Estate Disputes at Irwin Mitchell said, “We are delighted to welcome Thomas, whose experience and expertise will be a great asset to our growing national team.  We will continue to recruit quality senior and junior lawyers in the coming months to help us achieve our ambitious growth plans.”

Expert Opinion

“All three new joiners are a great addition to our property team and will enhance the firm's real estate offering in the North and around the country. Both Jill and Sarah will particularly provide a strong boost our team in Manchester, where we now have five property partners and have been heavily recruiting. Thomas is a welcome addition to both the growing Real Estates Disputes team and our Sheffield office.

“All our new senior associates come with great hands-on experience and good reputations and will be great assets to our national property practice -playing an important part in helping us to fulfil our ambition to provide first-class advice to clients.”
Adrian Barlow - Partner