People: Shakespeare Martineau; Ardent Management

After a string of successful client wins, law firm Shakespeare Martineau has expanded its residential development offering in the West Midlands with the appointment of solicitor Jack Kelly.

With more than eight years post-qualified experience, he has joined the firm as a legal director from Gowling WLG.

In his new role, he will be acting for developers, landowners and promoters on all aspects of residential development, with a particular focus on open market acquisitions and disposals, promotion of land, and developer-side affordable housing deals.

Kelly, who is based in Birmingham but working with clients and teams nationally, said: “I am delighted to have joined Shakespeare Martineau and was particularly attracted to the firm’s authentic and collaborative culture and beliefs, which strongly align with mine.

“I take great pleasure in seeing prospective development sites – which typically begin the development cycle as bare land – come to fruition as places in which people reside, build communities and, ultimately, spend their lives.

“There still appears to be a stigma in respect of new-build developments to some degree, but developers are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to design visually-appealing schemes that will leave a positive legacy in their local area.

“In particular, I am looking forward to using my expertise to help the residential development team deliver on client growth and assist the junior lawyers to achieve their ambitions at the firm. I also aim to build long-term relationships with clients by understanding who they are and what they want to accomplish, while providing clear, concise and pragmatic advice.”

Neil Gosling, head of residential development at Shakespeare Martineau, said: “Jack has a wealth of experience in residential development, especially in land acquisition and disposal work for national house builders.

“He has joined the team to assist with increasing work streams due to our success in being appointed to Lovell Homes’ core legal services panel and the on boarding of a number of new developer and strategic land clients. In his role, he will also help with the supervision and development of junior fee earners.

“Despite the uncertain economic climate, our residential development team continues to grow its client base, and Jack’s appointment further strengthens our offering.”

:::

A Birmingham-based national surveying and consents management consultancy has appointed a new group managing director to drive forward the company’s growth – and it marks a return to his roots.

Jon Stott has re-joined Ardent Management, which has offices in London, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin – the company where he started his career in 2004.

Stott left the business in 2013 to become managing director at Hamer Associates and oversaw the company’s growth which led to a buy-out from Gateley in 2016.

During that period, he also rose to be chair of industry body – the Compulsory Purchase Association (CPA).

Ardent has grown dramatically since 2013 and the appointment of Stott is intended to help the business achieve further growth after adding new offices and services.

He said: “When I originally joined the business, I was the sixth person to join the company and when I left nine years ago, we were up to 20.

“I’ve been watching the business progress and grow as it has added new service lines and has attracted some of the top talent in the industry, which means we are now up to more than 120 people.

“There are market-leading specialists here at Ardent and the business has expanded its geographical footprint out of London and into Birmingham, the north, Scotland and Ireland.

“I’m hugely excited by the opportunity to help the business to achieve its ambitious growth plans.”

Ardent offers a range of services within the property industry, including acting for developers and local authorities to assemble land – often including compulsory purchase – and provide consent management consultancy services to enable major projects.

The company specialises in the transport, renewables, town centre regeneration and utilities sectors.

Stott added: “Much of what we do is around land assembly for major projects and quite often that can be using compulsory purchase powers in the background using specialists in our compensation, consents and land referencing teams. More recently we have also added project management and land surveying & geomatics to our range of services, with all of those teams growing particularly quickly due to client demand.

“We’ve got a strong presence across the country and, whilst guiding clients through stringent rules and statutory consenting regimes, we aim to be innovative in the solutions we offer to the challenges our clients face.

“When you add all of that together, it gives us a really strong set of skills and great growth potential for the future.”

Richard Caten, chief executive of Ardent, welcomed Stott back to the business.

He said: “We are very pleased to have Jon back on board as our group managing director.

“He was part of the early phase of Ardent’s story back in 2004 and it’s great to have him back with the business as we aim to grow significantly over the coming years.”