Practice Summary

Katharine is a property litigation specialist and was awarded Real Estate Junior of the Year at the Bar Awards 2006. She was called to the Bar in 1989 and is now an established member of Landmark Chambers, having moved from 9 Old Square to join these Chambers in 2004.

Katharine has received glowing recommendations in the legal directories and is listed as a leading junior in both Chambers & Partners Directory and the Legal 500. She has been described by The Lawyer as "excellent" and the 2007 & 2008 Legal 500 say that Katharine "retains a first tier ranking with plaudits: can't praise her enough, a team player, extremely knowledgeable, her paperwork is excellent, a barrister you want on your side, especially if you expect to go twelve rounds with the other side" and "a superb fast-thinking trial advocate and ferocious cross-examiner".

The 2008 Chambers Directory says that Katharine "pulls out all the stops to win your case and is recognised by instructing solicitors and opponents as a superb, fast-thinking trial advocate", while in the 2009 Directory it is also said that "if you have to sit behind a junior in a tight spot, she would be the one to go to".

Elsewhere she has been described as receiving "the most regular praise, very bright and user friendly, an excellent firm advocate, good with witnesses, solicitors praise her hard working attitude and bright and enthusiastic". Katharine is also recommended in Legal Experts both in relation to Property Litigation and Commercial Litigation.

Katharine is currently involved in a number of large scale commercial property disputes and is regularly in Court. In the last year, she has had more than ten reported cases, five of which were in the Court of Appeal and one of which was in the House of Lords. Since joining Landmark, she has been instructed on a number of high profile property related matters, including the disputes relating to the London Eye and Heathrow Airport. Katharine was also instructed on behalf of the FA to advise on a variety of property disputes relating to the completion of Wembley Stadium.

The practice which Katharine has developed encompasses all aspects of property litigation, related professional negligence and insolvency litigation and commercial Chancery litigation. Her focus is principally upon Court related work and she is experienced in appearing before a wide variety of courts and tribunals at different levels. In addition to regular instructions from City firms, she enjoys a nationwide practice.

Katharine has developed a particular specialisation in obtaining urgent injunctions. Having acted in Hampshire Waste v Persons Unknown, in which Katharine obtained the first injunction to be granted against persons unknown in the context of trespass and protest demonstrations, she has frequently been involved in obtaining injunctions in situations of high profile mass trespasses and protests.

Mediation

Katharine is a CEDR Accredited mediator, having trained at the CEDR International Summer School at Stresa in Italy. Having regularly acted as counsel on mediations over the last 5 years, Katharine is now increasing her experience as a mediator and has now acted as a mediator on a variety of disputes, having been appointed under the Mayors and City of London scheme and also as a privately appointed mediator.

Arbitration

Katharine is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and in 2009 was also awarded a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration by the Institute, after having studied at the Summer School at Keble College, Oxford and having undertaken various exams and assignments. Katharine’s arbitration ‘know-how’ therefore extends to both international and domestic arbitrations. Katharine is keen to develop her experience in arbitrations in her specialist field of property litigation but is also happy to act as an arbitrator on other forms of dispute.

Examples of the type of property disputes in which Katharine has recently been involved include:

Business Tenancies

• Instructed in relation to the business lease renewal of the infrastructure of Heathrow Airport.
• Regularly instructed on contested lease renewal applications.
• Acted on Court of Appeal case of Lay and Others (Trustees of Portman Estate) v Drexler (May 2007) which considered whether in proceedings commenced by a landlord, the landlord was entitled to costs when the tenant served notice terminating the proceedings.

Commercial Landlord and Tenant/Property Disputes

• Instructed by a major Government department upon the disposal of strategically important Central London premises.
• Instructed on arbitration hearing concerning application for consent to change of use/approval of plans for proposed multi million development.

Injunctions

• Specialist in obtaining all types of urgent injunctions, particularly in connection with trespass and protest demonstrations and freezing injunctions.
• Instructed on many trespass injunctions for energy companies, supermarket chains, high profile individuals and also in connection with recent oil refinery protest disputes.

Insolvency related Property Disputes

• Instructed on a wide range of insolvency related property disputes, particularly on behalf of administrators and against tenant companies in administration.
• Instructed on the important Court of Appeal case of Sunberry Properties v Innovate Logistics (November 2008), which considered the principles to be applied by the court in granting permission to landlords to commence proceedings in exercise of their proprietary rights against a tenant companies in administration.

General Property Disputes

• Involved in a number of substantial nuisance claims, including the recent appeal to the Court of Appeal in Birmingham Development Corporation v Tyler (July 2008), commercial noise nuisance claims and other forms of nuisance affecting commercial, leisure, retail, residential and other types of property (including group litigation).
• Appeared in the recent Court Appeal case of City Inn v Ten Trinity Square (March 2008), which considered whether it is inconsistent with the nature of a restrictive covenant for control to be vested in a third party.
• Involved in the recent case of Field Common v Elmbridge (August 2008), in which Mr Justice Warren gave detailed consideration to the principles governing the assessment of damages for trespass.
• Instructed on Tackaberry v Hollis (November 2007) concerning a variety of academic legal points relating to the joint ownership of property.

Professional Negligence

• Instructed by the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund in connection with claims against members of the Bar on property related matters.
• Instructed on multi-million claim against Savills for breach of fiduciary obligations and professional negligence.

Leasehold Enfranchisement

• Regular appearances on behalf of the Howard de Walden Estate in connection with enfranchisement matters, for whom Katharine has acted since 1995.
• Instructed in relation to the final valuation stages of the case of Malekshad v Howard de Walden Estates and also acted on the recent House of Lords case of Howard de Walden Estates v Aggio.