Award-winning

Swinburne Maddison named Property Law Firm of the Year at the Insider North East Property Awards

We were delighted to see our Commercial Property team take home the award for Property Law Firm of the Year at this year’s Insider North East Property Awards. The awards, held at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead on 19th May 2022, celebrated the very best of the region’s property talent and – after a year which saw our Commercial Property team complete more than £60m of CBILS and RLS transactions on behalf of Atom Bank plc – the recognition was richly deserved.

The award also recognised the growth in the team, both in terms of recruitment and turnover, as well as the significant deals and developments which they have worked on over the past 12 months, including: acting on behalf of Beyond Housing Limited in connection with the purchase of land at Kirkleatham for the provision of 75 supported housing units, working closely with the solicitors for Homes England and the developer to ensure that a strict pre-Christmas deadline for exchange of contracts was met; acting on behalf of a large regional house builder in the acquisition of two large residential development sites with a combined developed value of £38m and ten separate legal titles to investigate; and acting on behalf of the purchaser of farmland and buildings at a price of £3.6m with borrowing secured on the property and further farm properties already owned by the buyer. Expanding on how they reached their decision, the Property Awards judges said:

“The Swinburne Maddison team represents a broad range of clients, including Durham Cathedral, Esh Group, Ramside Estates and Hargreaves Services. The highlight of last year was completing more than £60m of CBILS and RLS transactions on behalf of Atom Bank. The judges felt the team’s range of specialist knowledge and experience, and the wide range of its client base, set it apart from the others.”

Partner and Head of the Commercial Property team, Victoria Walton, commented:

“I am absolutely delighted on behalf of the whole team to have received this award and so proud of the hard work and commitment which every single member of the team – lawyers and support staff alike – have shown over the past 12 months. They really have pulled out all the stops to make sure that we were able to continue meeting the demands of our clients in the face of some unprecedented challenges, such as the sudden upsurge in instructions created by the launch of the government’s CBILs scheme.They are a credit to the firm and to the North East legal sector.

“We are still actively recruiting for new lawyers to join our awardwinning and Top Tier team so, for anyone looking for a new challenge, I can’t think of a more exciting time to get in touch!”

Image: Jim McAdam