Russell-Cooke is delighted to announce the appointment of John Webster as a partner in its planning department.
John joins from Osborne Clarke where he was an Associate Director in their national planning team where he also spearheaded the development of their compulsory purchase practice.
Since qualifying in 2008, John's work has spanned all areas of planning law. He has acted as the lead legal advisor on numerous commercial and residential development projects, providing strategic advice from inception through to obtaining deliverable planning consents.
John advises on the full extent of the consenting process including the review of planning applications, EIA, lawfulness of planning conditions, drafting and negotiation of complex s.106 planning agreements, permitted development rights, CIL and impacts on listed buildings. He also advises in respect of planning appeals (through to hearing and inquiries) and in relation to Judicial Review. He also has expertise advising clients under threat of planning enforcement action.
John also has significant experience advising on the promotion of major infrastructure development (DCOs) and compulsory purchase orders, including protecting clients' assets from their impacts and securing compulsory purchase compensation.
For the last three years running, he has been cited as a 'next generation lawyer' by Legal 500.
John will be based at Russell-Cooke's head office in Putney, and officially joins the firm as of September 1 2020.
Arnold Isaacson, real estate partner, commented:
"We are very pleased to welcome John to Russell-Cooke. He brings with him an outstanding track record including work on a large number of nationally significant infrastructure projects, and a well-earned reputation for real depth of planning expertise.
"As the property industry continues its recovery from the lockdown and begins to fire on all cylinders again John's addition strengthens our market-leading real estate team, enhancing our ability to provide best in class advice to clients. We look forward to working with him."
John Webster added:
"The property industry is going through a period of transformation, including to the planning system, with clients facing added complexity and new challenges. I am excited to be joining the team at Russell-Cooke and to build on the success that the planning and wider real estate team has achieved in recent years as we help clients to navigate this new landscape and, ultimately, help them seize the opportunities which planning can unlock."
John Webster's appointment follows Neil Dryer joining as partner in the Real Estate team in January 2020 and brings the total number of partners at Russell-Cooke to 62.