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“A driven and incisive advocate.” (The Legal 500 UK Bar)

“Particularly thorough and forensic in his approach, he is highly focused, diligent, confident and concise, and gets right to the heart of the issues.” (The Legal 500 UK Bar)

“...accessible and tenacious practitioner who has achieved some spectacular results.” (The Legal 500 UK Bar)

“He understands the client’s needs and is very thoughtful, considered and calm when in conference with clients” (Chambers and Partners UK Bar)

Juan is a specialist in all areas of infrastructure and planning, and in construction, environmental and related commercial claims, disputes, and regulation, with particular emphasis on the energy, transportation, building, waste/recycling and mining/extraction sectors. He has extensive experience across the full breadth of compulsory purchase and valuation/compensation law, minerals, land contamination, highways, and related property, as well as agriculture. He also advises on environmental taxes/levies, including in the areas of energy efficiency, landfill and climate change. Beyond his advocacy, he has a heavyweight litigation and advisory practice, and is instructed in international, high value multi-jurisdictional disputes, often working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, commonly for majors, operators, contractors, private clients and professional teams. He appears before the courts, in inquiries and arbitrations, and examinations. He is ranked as a Leading Junior by Legal 500 UK and Chambers and Partners UK. He also acts in commercial ADR and is an accredited mediator. He is a contributor to leading infrastructure, construction, energy and environmental legal practitioner texts.

uk-leading-junior-2024

Areas of expertise

Planning

Juan is ranked as a Leading Junior by Legal 500 UK and Chambers and Partners UK. His practice has encompassed all areas of development promoted under the TCPA 1990. Over his extensive experience in s.78 appeals, he has represented a wide range of infrastructure bodies, developers, landowners/private clients and objectors, in relation to energy, waste/minerals and commercial development, luxury schemes, stadia/leisure uses, largescale regeneration, settlement housing (24 schemes since 2017) and care/extra care. He advises widely on s.106, CIL, option and development agreements and overage (principal and surety) in addition to heavyweight EIA/SEA, habitats, flooding, and water and air quality. He has appeared in ‘Leading Planning’ and many other influential Planning Court cases over recent years, including: Mansell v Tonbridge and Malling BC [2019] PTSR 1452 (planning fallback; planning judgment); Mordue v SSCLG [2015] EWHC 539 (Admin) (wind power) and Aireborough Parish Council v Leeds City Council [2020] EWHC 1461 (Admin) (plan-making).

Cases include:

  • Mining/Quarries/Waste: Highthorn (Northumberland, Banks Group) opencast mine (then, the largest UK opencast site; 3Mt/pa); Cragmill Quarry; Heidelburg Quarry; Hutch Bank Quarry (exempted aggregate disposals; extraction rights; restoration) (see: Infrastructure).
  • Marine/Flood and coastal risk/Shoreline management: Southsea Coastal Scheme; Isle of Wight; Weymouth & Portland; other sea wall development.
  • Tall buildings: Shell Centre SE1: co-promoting (junior to Douglas Edwards KC) 8 buildings (up to 37 storeys) for commercial, residential, leisure and retail uses; Thameside West: advising London Mayor on Direction for Tall Buildings (opportunity area) redevelopment, site clearance and flood defence.
  • Luxury/Iconic/Heritage: Burberry Building, Haymarket, SW1: promoting for Principality of Monaco; 12 Hay Hill, Mayfair W1 (luxury members’ club: promoting for consortium); Portland Place, Marylebone W1 (The King’s Speech filmset: promoting residential conversion).
  • Stadia/Leisure: Longines Global Champions Tour, Kensington Palace Gardens: inaugural equestrian tournament (promoting for consortium); Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (promoting).
  • Residential: 1,250 units, Kent: regeneration scheme of 50 ha+ of BMV agricultural land (promoting); 10+ luxury new schemes, amalgamations, basements: West London, Essex; Acted in 60+ urban extension, regeneration, new settlement, care/extra care appeals (promoting/opposing).
  • Horticulturist hubs: Advising on viability of farm hubs and planning implications of crop rate of return, crop modelling, costs and pricing, yield and productivity, and usability of alternatives.
  • Festivals/shows: Wireless Festival (promoting for Ticketmaster UK); Burberry fashion show.
  • TPO tree-felling: Largest UK alleged unauthorised felling (132 TPO trees, Essex).

Enforcement: Juan has specialist experience of complex, high value and commercially sensitive enforcement, and regularly advises on the vires, constitutional propriety and procedural compliance of action. He advises in related commercial (liquidated/other) damages, estoppel and rights claims and has acted in local authority mediations, commonly for HNW/UHNW clients. Cases include: Hutch Bank quarry (U1 exempted aggregate disposals/for construction purposes); Waste facility, Suffolk (inert waste crushing, storage and transportation); Waste4Fuel, Kent (EA injuncted illegal waste site); Largest UK (alleged) unauthorised TPO tree-felling prosecution, Essex (132 x TPO trees); Park Crescent, W1; Millennium Hotel, W1; Portland Place and Howard de Walden Estate, W1; Tideway Wharf; Kensington W8 (amalgamations and double basement redevelopment; construction management breaches); Hampstead Garden Suburb (unauthorised residential development); The Source nightclub, Maidstone.

Influential High Court and Court of Appeal (Infrastructure and Planning)Thornhill Estates Ltd v SSCLG [2018] EWHC 3663 (Admin): planning benefits and mitigations; R (oao Network Rail) v SSEFRA [2018] EWCA Civ 2069: enablement in conjunction with exercise of HA 1980 powers; Mansell v Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council [2017] EWCA Civ 1314: Planning fallback implementation; presumption in favour of sustainable development; Kendall v Rochford District Council [2015] Env LR 21: Adequacy of environmental impact assessment (SEA/EIR); reasonable alternatives assessment; compliance with Statement of Community Involvement; Cogent LLP v Rochford District Council [2012] EWHC 2542 (Admin): SEA  challenge; reasonable alternatives; South Northamptonshire Council v SSCLG [2013] EWHC 11 (Admin): Priority of statutory development plan in decision-making; national and regional need for onshore wind development; R (oao Save Britain’s Heritage) v SSCLG and Gateshead MBC [2010] EWHC 2919: meaning of demolition in EIA development; ‘salami-slicing’ and phased regeneration; lawfulness of prior approval.

Local Plans: Juan has appeared for promotors and objectors at 15+ plan examinations, and advised on (found sound) aspects of the Leeds Site Allocations DPD (up to 2019; being the geographically largest SA-DPD for England and Wales) and acted in related s.113 PCPA 2004 Planning Court interim applications/challenge (Aireborough Neighbourhood Development Forum v Leeds City Council [2020] EWHC 1461 (Admin); [2020] EWHC 2183 (Admin) (Relief): proposed housing allocations/broad locations for growth).

-- Development Consent Orders and Infrastructure

Juan has extensive experience of major infrastructure, and of DCO and TWAO applications, which often combine with his related CPO and compensation, energy generation/supply and transportation, and highways work. He acts for a wide range of infrastructure and public bodies, energy suppliers and distribution network operators, as well as for objectors. Projects include renewables, and strategic road and rail improvement (including motorways, interchanges, station redevelopment, embankment, bridges and tunnels, accommodation works). He also speaks at major infrastructure and transportation seminars/forums, including on infrastructure delivery, the Northern Transport and Infrastructure Development Forum (reformulation of ‘Northern Powerhouse’ initiative in synchrony with the UK’s transport growth strategy) and Network North. He also has particular experience of geotechnical and excavation methodologies, and trial pit and structural surveying, in connection with his construction work.

Infrastructure projects include:

  • Road and Rail: M20; M25 junctions, links, and relief improvements (Silvertown; Uttoxeter bypass); Northants rail strategic interchange; railway bridge infrastructure, and station improvements (recently acting for Network Rail Infrastructure (15+ Orders) in Farnborough North, Hampshire TWAO); Acting for infrastructure bodies and objectors in relation to strategic road and rail transportation schemes (optioneering and upgrading, crossing closures, line speed restrictions and mitigation deliverability: s.120 HA 1980; statutory incompatibility and s.57 BTCA 1949; RCCA 1845; WCA 1981; appearing in landmark cases of R (oao Ramblers Association) v SSEFRA [2017] EWHC 716 (Admin) (statutory incompatibility; illegality; DMMOs) and R (oao Network Rail) v SSEFRA [2018] EWCA Civ 2069 (necessity for enabling development).
  • Oil and Gas: Advising on offshore consent revisions for North Sea drilling rig fields, considering EIA (Sch.1 and Sch.2, Regulations 2020; OPRED Guidance 2021) and FDPs with regard to phased infrastructure, consented baselines, production forecasting and cumulative assessment; GONPA.
  • Energy from waste facilities; Biomass; Incineration: Advising on digestion processing, gas capture capacity, waste management and transfer processes, and coalescence, in respect of 10+ waste facilities across Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devon, Cornwall; Waste4Fuel, Kent (EA injuncted waste site: High Court final injunction trial).
  • Solar: Econergy, Rutland; Wiltshire.
  • Wind: Onshore wind (Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and East Riding) and offshore wind (Sheringham Shoal); Mordue v SSCLG [2015] EWHC 539 (Admin) (wind power).
  • Nuclear: Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station. Advising objector on DCO conformity and transport assessment (public consultation and planning performance agreement stages: Examination Authority Q&As).
  • Mining/Quarries: Highthorn opencast mine (Northumberland, Banks Group): co-promoting the then largest UK opencast mine (3Mt/pa), addressing Paris commitments, energy mix and security of supply, and operational management; Cragmill Quarry; Heidelburg Quarry; Hutch Bank Quarry.
  • Supporting infrastructure/Wayleaves: Advising electricity companies, landowners and statutory parties (UKPN, EPN, SSE, EDF, RBKC) on wayleave solutions, electrical lines (cable undergrounding and overheads), supporting infrastructure and pylon replacement; digital fixed-line infrastructure wayleaves; related land valuation and compensation, and trespass (various sites).
  • Marine/Water: Advising water utilities, developers and landowners on water/sewerage supply connections (various); mooring and slipway development (Ilse of Wight). 

-- Compulsory Purchase and Compensation

Juan is particularly experienced in CPO and valuation/compensation, which often coincides with his wayleaves and infrastructure consenting work. He acts for landowners and acquiring authorities, typically in infrastructure, town centre regeneration and housing contexts, and appears at inquiry and in mediation. He has a busy compensation advisory practice, and appears in Upper Tribunal Lands Chamber proceedings (substantive hearings; interim applications; arbitrations, across the breadth of compensation aspects (planning assumptions, business/management time loss, betterment, ransom, access, saleability, HA 1980 compensation): References involving Network Rail, HS2, Crossrail, National Highways, energy suppliers/distribution network operators, utilities (various)). He also commonly advises in connection with complex development and planning scenario valuations (Red Book/other) in statutory compensation contexts.

CPO cases include:

  • CPO Infrastructure and Town Centre Regeneration: Banwell Bypass; Highways England (A2 & Ebbsfleet Junction) CPO [2020]; Bracknell Town Centre [2020]; North Finchley [2019]; Essex County Council (Chelmsford City Centre) (cycle route) CPO [2019]; Leicester City Centre (Belgrave & Mansfield) CPO [2018] (transport hubs; green growth transport corridors; cycle zoning); A50 Trunk Road (Uttoxeter Growth Corridor) CPO [2017]; M20 Lorry Park, Kent (‘Operation Stack’ linked) [2017]; Hounslow [2017]; Croydon [2016]; Brick Lane/Tower Hamlets [2013].

Compensation cases include:

  • Road infrastructure: Metropolitan Borough of Stockport (A6 to Manchester Airport A555) CPO 2013 (LC arbitration: [2022 - ongoing]); HS2; Leicester City Centre [2020]; Leeds City Council (East Leeds Orbital Road) CPO [2020].
  • Rail infrastructure: HS2 (various Euston references; Park Square); Crossrail; Network Rail Infrastructure Limited statutory compensation references, under Railway Regulation Act 1842 agreements (interference to business from urgent rail safety works; permitted remediation; reinstatement to riverbed sections; disturbance to licensee; planning performance obligations).
  • Energy infrastructure: Necessary wayleaves for pylons and electric lines: advising (pre-compensation strategy stage: UKPN, EPN and SSE) on electricity distribution operator and landowners on disturbance, easements, betterment and saleability, compensation assessments for Upper Tribunal Lands Chamber references, and trespass (various). Implied wayleaves: Advising landowners on trespass/injurious affection claims, development valuations, ransom strips and damages (London Borough of Southwark v Kingpin Ltd; Vumpine (University of Manchester) v SoS).
  • Telecommunications infrastructure: Advising Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (as lead London authority) on compensation liabilities from a [2021] district-wide, digital fixed-line infrastructure wayleave agreement; mast developments (various).
  • Water infrastructure: Advising Severn Trent Water and Thames Water on compensation liabilities under Sch. 12, paragraphs 2 and 3 WIA 1991 (land value diminution; disturbance; business loss).
  • DNO misconduct/delay: EA 1989 compensation for loss (r6 disturbance) caused by DNO delay in implementation of agreed future diversion of electric lines.
  • Statutory blight and ransom (Landowners and Acquiring Authorities): electrical lines and supporting infrastructure (corona discharge, general material detriment and saleability) (various).

Energy and Natural Resources

Juan’s energy law and natural resources practice encompasses high-value commercial energy disputes (power generation, supply and distribution), compensation, infrastructure consenting and all aspects of regulation and licensing. He acts in proceedings before a broad range of tribunals and in arbitration.

He advises majors, suppliers and distribution operators in renewables, oil and gas, and electricity, and in respect of power purchase agreements, transportation networks, infrastructure wayleave and network connection agreements, decommissioning arrangements, transmission-above-ground installations, RHI Scheme, HaaS modelling, network code rights, NGESO decision-making, and enforcement generally under the Gas and Electricity Acts. He has advised Ofgem (in Competition and Markets Authority proceedings) on their Opex Escalator condition modifications of National Grid’s Electricity Transmission Licence (EA 1989).

He is commonly instructed by energy from waste and recycling operators, including as part of US, EU, Southeast Asia, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and West Africa litigation, engaging multiple international environmental regulators. He is familiar with UK/international energy strategies for promoting renewables and cleaner energy growth, mix, decarbonisation and security of supply.

Cases include: 

  • Oil and Gas: Advising on offshore consent revisions for North Sea drilling rig fields, considering EIA (Sch.1 and Sch.2, Regulations 2020; OPRED Guidance 2021) and FDPs with regard to phased infrastructure, consented baselines, production forecasting and cumulative assessment; GONPA.
  • Advising Ofgem (in Competition and Markets Authority proceedings) on Opex Escalator condition modifications of National Grid’s Electricity Transmission Licence (EA 1989).
  • Advising operator consortium on the commercial viability of HaaS modelling.
  • Advising operator on Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme and certification requirements.
  • Advising UK energy from waste, recycling and incineration plant operators (Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devon) on facility capacity for gas capture and digestion processing and decommissioning/breach of warranty.
  • Advising JV energy-from-waste facilities (UK/other), recycling facilities and port operator in multi-jurisdictional dispute (multilateral agreements, including Basel) governing waste transfers to/from US, EU, Southeast Asia, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and West Africa; jurisdictional clauses.
  • Advising a US materials recovery operator in connection with recycled battery/waste imports/transfers via UK; jurisdictional clauses.
  • Advising energy from waste operator on continued permitting of renewable gas/anaerobic digester; quantification of ‘green energy’ outputs (slurry, food waste).
  • Mining/Quarries: Highthorn opencast mine (Northumberland, Banks Group; former largest UK opencast mine (3Mt/pa); Cragmill Quarry; Heidelburg Quarry; Hutch Bank Quarry (extraction rights; restoration).
  • Advising a major agricultural hub on agricultural biomass-to-pharmaceutical processing.
  • Acting for applicants and objectors in wayleave applications, in conjunction with schedule 4 Electricity Act 1989; electricity distribution licensing; Engineering Recommendation P2/7; electricity circuit diversion; the Electricity Safety, and Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002.
  • Advising DNO on Capacity Market NGESO regulation.

Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Disputes

Juan acts in all construction and engineering disputes, with an emphasis on defects, delay and disruption, and is fast-developing a specialist practice in project advice for (onshore/offshore) energy plant (including cabling and transformers), major road and rail transportation (management/maintenance), and strategic flood and coastal/tidal risk development. He advises on all main forms of contract, and accepts instructions in complex litigation before the courts and in arbitration, and at all stages of the adjudication process. He is particularly familiar with the technical aspects of infrastructure delivery, maintenance and decommissioning. He is a contributor to a leading construction text (energy and transportation litigation and disputes; emerging influence of energy efficiency and net zero sustainability).

Cases include:

  • Acting for claimant in multi-party defects claim, and claim to enforce surety/bond/indemnity liabilities under s.38 HA 1980 arising from multiple design, as-built construction and materials failures (surface course, stabilisation, geogrids, capping and sub-base, levelling off, proof-rolling) within extensive road and footway network.
  • Advising NEC 4 contractor undertaking major flood defence reinforcement works under a construction programme necessitating the mid-river use of crane and barge for piling and anchoring works.
  • Solar: advising on SPA, EPC and decommissioning liabilities (indemnity) and design issues.
  • Advising rail infrastructure body on liabilities arising from vibratory, geotechnical and wider dredging disturbance to a river bed, from underbridge reinforcement and embankment reconstruction; Crossrail disputes (see also: Compensation, above).
  • Acting for licensee of iconic UK sport stadium, advising on consortium owners’ contractual and guarantee-specific liabilities arising from the licensee’s occupational exposure to part-buried and excavated asbestos sheeting, future bunding remediation and relocation works, in connection with separate liabilities under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
  • Advising engineer contractor on the scope of design obligations, warranty and contribution (CL(C)A 1978) under contract/negligence/common law duty, for failed jetty development.
  • Advising a landowner and employer on defective ground investigation and flood drainage works, arising from land slippage and failed reinforcement, obstructing access to Cheddar Gorge.
  • Advising a retail consortium and residents’ group on defective coastal defence scheme, including land erosion implications, the geotechnical assessment of remedial optioneering, and wave action impact assessment.
  • Advising a developer on pier stabilisation, and structural implications of adjacent coastal defence works.
  • Advising a national bus operator on defective road junction design and modelling (network loading) in connection with PFI and highways safety auditing of over-capacity links.
  • Advising a professional team on surveying and notification duties under CDM Regulations 2015 in preparation for a construction phase plan.
  • Advising successful claimant on multi-party ‘common costs’ (TCC costs budgeting).

Environment

Juan is ranked as a Leading Junior by Legal 500 UK and has a heavyweight environmental law practice, advising on all commercial aspects of environmental and development consenting and permitting, rights and regulation (especially in the energy, waste and recycling, and flood-related sectors). He has considerable experience of all major environmental designations, net zero and climate change implications, tidal and coastal defence, riparian rights, water and sewerage, land contamination, pollution controls and nuisance, air quality, marine protection, biodiversity and habitats, and SEA/EIA, in conjunction with high value disputes and enforcement. He is commonly instructed in response to initial investigations or enforcement by the EA, or to formal demands of international regulators or partner NGOs. He commonly acts for largescale energy-from-waste and recycling operators, and product processors in connection with high value controlled waste seizures and compulsory repatriations within/from jurisdictions including US, EU, Southeast Asia, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and West Africa. He advises operators, controllers and transporters on their commercial exposure, often involving the WFD waste hierarchy, processing and management best practices, the regulation of incineration and gasification recycling. Carbon capture and storage-related disputes are a developing area of Juan’s practice. He writes and lectures widely (UK North Sea Transition Deal 2021; British Energy Security Strategy 2022; Waste and recycling; the future of anaerobic digestion; the net zero drive) and is a contributing editor to a leading legal text on net zero.

Cases include:

  • Oil and Gas: Advising on offshore consent revisions for North Sea drilling rig fields, considering EIA (Sch.1 and Sch.2, Regulations 2020; OPRED Guidance 2021) and FDPs with regard to phased infrastructure, consented baselines, production forecasting and cumulative assessment; GONPA.
  • Energy from waste: Advising facility operators, recycling and incineration plant operators (Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devon), including on facility capacity for gas capture and digestion processing.
  • Product and waste recycling, treatment and processing: Advising a US materials recovery operator in connection with waste/non-waste status of battery chemical intermediate (when viewed as a product or by-product), in connection with high value EU-UK importation, recycling treatment and processing obligations (WFD and REACH classifications and US carrier controls); Acting for a reprocessor in High Court (injunction/other) proceedings upon suspension of accreditation under the Packaging Waste Regulations 2007; Advising on application of waste duty of care (s.34 EPA 1990) in connection with sewage waste broker and carrier transfer and disposal responsibilities.
  • Transfrontier shipments, seizures and repatriations: US, EU, Southeast Asia, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and West Africa jurisdictions.
  • Commercial waste collection and disposal services: Advising operator on actionable contravention of ‘polluter pays principle’ with regard to s.17 EA 2021 and Part II EPA 1990 levy duties and powers and overlaying competition law obligations ([2023] CAT 50, considering Western Riverside Waste Authority v Wandsworth BC [2005] EWHC 536) in connection with business loss caused by public sector-run waste services; Interrogation of waste collecting pricing schemes and waste and resources action programming calculations.
  • Tidal and flood defence/flooding: Tidal and flood defence/flooding: Advising landowners (Isle of Wight; Southsea, Weymouth) on WFD assessments for coastal water activity/subtidal relief/mussel bed preservation, liabilities arising from implementation of strategic defence plan scenarios, consultation, (private and public) flood defence EIA, and defence failures; Advising Cheddar Gorge & Caves on flood and erosion liabilities.
  • River works: Advising NEC 4 contractor undertaking river wall reinforcement works on consenting and licensing (including under Water Resources Act 1991) under a construction programme necessitating mid-river use of crane and barge for piling and anchoring. Advising a licensee on environmental duties/obligations in connection with river dredging and embankment reconstruction. Advising statutory body on vibratory and wider disturbance impacts to river bed from bridge reinforcement works.
  • Marine consents: Advising landowners on hydrology impacts of development, discharge consenting from waste releases, marine licensing and modelling.
  • Office for Environmental Protection: Acting for contractor in complaint to OEP for ‘serious’ environmental law non-compliance by a public body, for withholding a civil liability indemnity from the contractor in connection with instructed embankment works.
  • Environmental damage and remediation: Advising agricultural enterprises on actionable claims arising from flooding arising from pump and irrigation failures; Advising turf manufacturer on actionable claim from flooding damage; Advising on sewage effluent discharge modelling.
  • Land contamination: Acted for licensee of iconic UK sport venue in connection with high value liability/remediation Part IIA EPA 1990/ Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 claim, for buried and excavated asbestos, arising in connection with consortium owner redevelopment; Acted for claimant landowners and contractors in substantial leachate contamination claims (various); Advising leaseholder on remediation duties in relation to large soils and groundwater contamination.
  • Soil: Advising major UK horticultural hub on estate-wide soil classification, enrichment, and a business viability appraisal on hail risk in conjunction with redevelopment.
  • Environmental due diligence and scoping: Advising various prospective purchasers on due diligence matters preceding estate acquisitions; Advising on Environmental Statement scoping in respect of wide range of development.
  • EA v Hughes [2014] EWHC 2484 (QB): Acting for recycling facility operator, resisting EA enforcement of site clearance and combustible waste disposals.
  • R (oao Save Britain’s Heritage) v SSCLG and Gateshead MBC [2010]: Lawfulness of prior approval; meaning of ‘demolition’ in EIA development; asserted ‘salami-slicing’ of phased Bridging Newcastle Gateshead regeneration project.

Juan also advises in First-tier/Upper Tax Tribunals proceedings in connection with environmental taxes (quarry/mining), exemptions and allowances; Landfill tax assessment appeal of [£2m+ value]: First-tier Tribunal (Tax) [2022]: quarry ‘no taxable disposal’ exemptions; Landfill tax assessment and penalty appeal [£5m+ value]: First-tier Tribunal (Tax) [2020]: LOI testing, cell buffer layering, temporary infrastructure off-setting, and ‘no taxable disposal’ exemption; hardship certification.

Commercial

Juan has experience of a wide range of high value, domestic and international commercial litigation and disputes, particularly relating to major infrastructure, (onshore/offshore) energy generation and plant, termination and decommissioning liabilities and related warranty claims, mining extraction rights and restoration, prospecting, strategic flood and coastal/tidal risk development, major road and rail transportation, and marine and dredging rights. He appears in a wide range of tribunals and in arbitration. He is a contributor to leading infrastructure, construction, energy legal practitioner texts on (solar/wind) SPAs and EPCs, and breach of warranty and decommissioning liabilities.

Cases include:

  • Advising JV energy-from-waste facilities (UK/other), recycling facilities and port operator on multilateral agreements (including Basel) and repatriation governing waste transfers to/from US, EU, Southeast Asia, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and West Africa; jurisdictional clauses.
  • Advising a US materials recovery operator in connection with waste/non-waste status of recovered battery components/chemical intermediate in connection with high value EU-UK importation, recycling treatment and processing obligations (WFD and REACH classifications and US carrier controls); jurisdictional clauses.
  • Advising on Free Zone Service Agreement (Sri Lanka) and AfCFTA in context of recycled materials transportation and logistical support; transition planning and termination. 
  • Mining/Quarries/Extraction: Highthorn opencast mine (Northumberland, Banks Group (3Mt/pa)); Cragmill Quarry; Heidelburg Quarry; Hutch Bank Quarry (extraction rights; restoration; decommissioning).
  • Advising commercial waste collection operator on actionable contravention of ‘polluter pays principle’ with regard to levy duties and powers and overlaying competition law obligations ([2023] CAT 50 in connection with business loss caused by public sector-run waste services.
  • Advising operator consortium on the commercial viability of HaaS modelling.
  • Supporting infrastructure/Wayleaves: Advising landowners and statutory parties on wayleave solutions, electrical lines (cable undergrounding and overheads), supporting infrastructure and pylon replacement; digital fixed-line infrastructure wayleaves; related land valuation and compensation, and trespass.

Property

Juan advises on complex matters involving covenants, easements, highways duties/rights, access, boundary disputes, land erosion, operational railway land, adverse possession, and estoppel. He acts for investors, developers, agricultural landowners, commercial, residential property owners, and public bodies. He has represented Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (15+ inquiries) in respect of DMMOs affecting operational railway land/infrastructure (Highways Act 1980; Town and Country Planning Act 1990; Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981).

Cases include:

  • Advising on Operation Brock HGV traffic management system, for remediating Port of Dover/Eurotunnel disruption, in conjunction with A20 Dover Tap queuing system and Kent Access Permitting.
  • Advising on private maintenance responsibilities for the National Cycling Network, in conjunction with highway damage caused by the River Tyne and riverbank erosion.
  • Advising rail infrastructure body on liabilities arising from vibratory, geotechnical and wider dredging disturbance to a river bed, from underbridge reinforcement and embankment reconstruction; Crossrail disputes.
  • Cheddar Gorge: highway damage and land erosion.
  • Promoting/objecting to the creation, substitution or extinguishment of rights affecting operational railway land/infrastructure (statutory and common law dedication; statutory incompatibility; illegality; s.57 of the British Transport Commission Act 1949; Railway Clauses Consolidation Act 1845).

Recommendations

Commentaries in The Legal 500 UK Bar and Chambers and Partners UK Bar, say:

  • “A driven and incisive advocate” (The Legal 500 UK Bar [2024])
  • “A junior with a forensic approach to cases.” (The Legal 500 UK Bar [2024])
  • “Juan has an unfathomable ability to rapidly understand complex issues and provide a clear way forward, and is a pleasure to work with” (The Legal 500 UK Bar [2024])   
  • “He understands the client’s needs and is very thoughtful, considered and calm when in conference with clients” (Chambers and Partners UK Bar [2024])
  • “Particularly thorough and forensic in his approach, he is highly focused, diligent, confident and concise, and gets right to the heart of the issues.” (The Legal 500 UK Bar [2023])
  • “Very professional and diligent. A highly skilled advocate and able to turn the tables from friendly to challenging cross-examination at a moment’s notice. Uses his experience to open up unforeseen opportunities during cross-examination. A real future star QC.” (The Legal 500 UK Bar [2023])
  • “Robust. Well-organised. Great presentation.” 
  • “…a force in matters concerning climate change, flood alleviation, coastal defence schemes and ecology.”
  • “…commercially aware...extremely professional and diligent.”
  • “...accessible and tenacious practitioner who has achieved some spectacular results.”
  • “Very knowledgeable, concise, proactive and user friendly.” 
  • “...a tenacious advocate who really fights his corner.”