Kathryn is a partner and joint-head of Shoosmiths’ Planning Team, driving the team’s growth forward across the UK. She is also the joint head of the firm’s Living Sector.
An experienced planning lawyer, she acts on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious planning matters, including highways matters and compulsory purchase work, drafting and negotiating complex Section 106 agreements, judicial review, footpath/highway closures, infrastructure agreements and village green issues.
Kathryn has advised on projects spanning the length and breadth of the UK, for clients including Peel Holdings, Extra, Bellway, Vistry, United Utilities and Tesco. Her experience includes advising:
- Peel Holdings on a number of large housebuilding sites in the north west and Salford, including advising on the strategy for renewal of unimplemented parts of existing consents, securing new consents and renegotiating Section106 requirements, and project managing planning appeals through the inquiry process;
- Vastint in relation to the creation of a residential -led new “urban village” in Stratford, London;
- Bellway, Vistry, Story Homes, Kellen Homes and Extra in relation to Section 106 agreement and related infrastructure work;
- Liverpool Airport in relation to complex permitted development rights advice; and
- the London Borough of Hackney in relation to the compulsory purchase and redevelopment of three large estate renewal schemes.
Kathryn joined Shoosmiths in 2013, having previously worked at Eversheds, DWF and Semple Fraser. She also spent six years working in-house for Preston and then St Helens Councils, a mix of public and private experience that clients find invaluable, as it provides empathy, insights and scope for innovation for projects at the public/private interface.
She is a Legal Associate Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
Kathryn is again identified as a Leading Individual for Planning legal work in Legal 500 and Chambers UK and her glowing client feedback states that clients appreciate that “she is very organised, energetic and responsive to client needs”, as well as “a pleasure to work with”.