39 Essex Chambers’ Planning Law Conference 2017

Planning Law Conference 2017

Date: Thursday 26th January 2017 – 9.30am till 4:30pm

Venue: Royal College of Surgeons, 34-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PE

Cost: £120 (£100 plus VAT)

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Biographies

John Steel QC

John Steel QC’s main areas of practice are planning, aviation, compulsory purchase and environmental law and he is cited as a recommended leader in these fields by the current editions of Chambers UK and The Legal 500. He is an expert in environmental, licensing, local government and related cases. His planning and environmental law practice has encompassed the full range of developments, including major infrastructure, housing, retail, business, leisure, minerals and waste. John is Joint Head of the Planning, Environment and Property Group in 39 Essex Chambers.

Stephen Tromans QC

Stephen Tromans QC is recognised as a leading practitioner in environmental, energy and planning law. His clients include major utilities and industrial companies in the UK and elsewhere, banks, insurers, Government departments and agencies, local authorities, NGOs and individuals. He has been involved in some of the leading cases in matters such as environmental impact assessment, habitats, nuisance, and waste, in key projects such as proposals for new nuclear powerstations, and in high-profile incidents such as the Buncefield explosion and the Trafigura case.

Richard Harwood OBE QC

Richard Harwood OBE QC specialises in planning, environment and public law. He appears in courts, inquiries, examinations and hearings, including frequently in the Planning Court and appellate courts. Voted as one of the top ten Planning Silks in Planning magazine’s 2014 and 2015 surveys, he has appeared in many of the leading cases of recent years. Richard is also a leading commentator, a case editor of the Journal of Planning and Environment Law and the author of books including Planning Enforcement, Historic Environment Law and Planning Permission. In 2015 he was appointed by the Housing and Planning Minister as the sole lawyer member of the Local Plans Expert Group.

Justine Thornton QC

Justine specialises in environmental and planning law and related aspects of international; EU; public; regulatory and commercial
law. She is rated by Chambers UK as “a great advocate with a fierce intellect”. She is a Visiting Professor at University
College London. Her experience covers a broad range of high profile projects including HS2 and Hinkley Point C. A particular feature of Justine’s practice is complex environmental group actions, often with cross border elements. She appeared in the longest environmental trial in the UK, to date over environmental damage in Colombia. The trial lasted 5 months and was conducted
via simultaneous Spanish translation. Justine also acted in the biggest group action claim arising out of an oil spill in Nigeria (settled for £55 million). Justine is Case Law Editor of the
Journal of Environmental Law. Her research publications include the prestigious Law Quarterly Review.

John Pugh-Smith

John Pugh-Smith MA, FSA, MCIArb, CEDR Accredited Mediator, is a well-recognised and commercially attuned practitioner in the field of planning with related environmental, local government, parliamentary and real estate. He acts for both the private as well as the public sectors and third party interests. Much of his workload is project and appeal related with a particular current emphasis in strategic and retirement housing developments with EIA and viability considerations. He is a member and technical adviser to the Retirement Housing Group and one of the Design Council CABE’s Built Environment Experts. John is also an experienced a mediator over a wide range of areas. He is a committee member of the Bar Council’s ADRC, a founding member of the Planning Mediation Group of the RICS and an adviser to the Parliamentary APPG on ADR. He has been and remains extensively involved in various initiatives to use mediation to resolve a wider range of public law issues including acting as one of the mediators on the DCLG/HCA’s joint panel of “Section 106 brokers”.

Richard Wald

Richard Wald was called to the bar in 1997. He specialises, and is ranked by the main directories, in the following areas of law: Planning, Environmental, Energy, Administrative and Public Law (including Local Government). He was General Editor of Thompson’s Encyclopaedia of Environmental Law from 2004-2015 and continues to edit the Bulletin of Environmental Law. He is a contributor to Tromans on EIA Law and Practice, Tromans on Nuclear Law and and Co-author of Butterworth’s Highways Law and Practice. He was appointed an Assistant Boundary Commissioner in 2016 and to the AG’s B-Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown in 2009.

James Burton

James Burton practises principally in environmental, planning, administrative and energy law, also insurable risk and related aspects of the common law. The nature of his practice often brings these complementary areas together.

James’ work is both domestic and international.

He frequently represents clients as their sole advocate and appears regularly in the High Court and Court of Appeal as well as at public inquiry and the criminal courts.

James was named ‘Junior of the Year’ in the Environmental and Planning category at the 2015 Chamber Bar Awards

Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho

Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho has extensive experience advising and litigating EU law issues which arise in planning and environmental law. She has advised on judicial review of CIL decisions (in particular how State aid law applies to CIL exemptions), state aid and procurement issues arising in the context of proposed developments, compliance with REACH and advising and litigating in respect of issues to do with the electricity network. She also has experience in the environmental taxes, particularly the Aggregates Levy, Landfill Tax, Climate Change Levy and Carbon Price Support.

Victoria Hutton

Victoria Hutton is a planning and environmental law barrister. She has consistently been rated as one of the top planning barristers under 35 by Planning Magazine (2016, 2015, 2014). Her work spans the breadth of planning and environmental law and she regularly appears in courts of all levels and at planning appeals. Her current work includes acting on behalf of a developer in their appeal against the refusal of planning permission for a crematorium in the green belt (junior to Peter Village Q.C.), promoting sites on behalf of various landowners through the local plans process and appearing on behalf of the proposed developer at a number of appeals following the refusal of planning permission for retail use. Victoria is also currently co-authoring (together with Richard Harwood Q.C.) a textbook on planning policy which is due to be published by Bloomsbury in 2017.

Daniel Stedman Jones

Daniel Stedman Jones has rapidly developed a wide environmental, planning and public law practice. Ranked as one of the best planning juniors under 35 by Planning Magazine, he regularly acts for developers, local authorities and campaigning groups. He is a contributing editor to the Thomson Reuters Encyclopedia of Environmental Law and Shackleton on the Law of Meetings. Daniel is a member of the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel.

Rosie Scott

Rosie Scott accepts instructions across all areas of Chambers’ work, with a particular interest in administrative and public law, planning, environmental and regulatory law. Rosie makes regular court appearances, undertakes pleading and advisory work and has a broad experience of drafting pleadings, witness statements and other core documents. Recently she was instructed as a junior on a successful defence to an application for permission to judicially review a grant of planning permission. Before pupillage, Rosie spent 18 months with top-tier firm WilmerHale, where she worked on various international arbitration and commercial litigation disputes, in areas such as oil and gas; international commercial joint ventures; and construction and engineering.