Susan is an experienced commercial property law specialist with a diverse client portfolio.
She acts for private investment companies, commercial landlords and tenants, developers, charities, and HNW individuals and family offices.
She advises on all aspects of commercial property investment and on disposals and acquisitions of all types including office and mixed-use buildings, retail parks, leisure, shopping centres and warehousing.
Susan acts for retail tenants, including household names, and corporate tenants, including HQ acquisitions for corporate tenants.
Additionally, Susan is highly experienced in advising landlords on commercial property leasing and portfolio management, having acted for corporate, institutional and private landlords over many years. Susan also advises on commercial and residential development, including greenfield and brownfield redevelopment and city centre/urban regeneration.
Susan has been my lawyer for the last 15 years and I consider her to be a multi-faceted genius when it comes to property work.
Sir David Khalili, property developer, investor and founder of the world-renowned Khalili Collections
Expertise
- Commercial property investment: sales and purchases
- Portfolio management
- Sales and leaseback
- Options and overage
- Retail tenants
- Corporate tenants
- Landlords: leases and management
- Prime residential sales and acquisitions
- Commercial and residential development
- High-net-worth individuals
- Family offices
Experience
Investment
- Acted for an overseas client on its acquisition of a £35 million portfolio of industrial properties.
- Acted on the acquisition and, following its joint-venture redevelopment, disposal of a £250 million central London office building.
- Acquisitions and disposals of multimillion-pound investment sites and buildings for a wide range of investor clients.
- Acted on the sale of two portfolios of properties for £60 million and £300 million.
- Acted on the sale and leaseback of warehouse premises for a distribution company.
Tenant and Occupiers
- Acted for a national retailer on the acquisition of multiple store units in shopping centres, discount malls and on the high street plus renewals and disposals
- Acted on the leasehold acquisition of multiple sites for a leading distribution company.
- Acted for a publishing house in the leasehold acquisition of its HQ premises.
- Acted on the acquisition of HQ leasehold premises for a range of corporate occupiers with, as necessary, disposal of their former premises.
- Acted for a corporate occupier on sublets of its HQ premises.
- Acted for professional firms on their acquisition of leasehold HQ and satellite premises.
- Acted for a nationwide high-street retailer on its portfolio of shop units, including lease renewals.
- Advising the building owner of a landmark building in the West End of London, in relation to the tenants’ works to create retail space, and other facilities, including significant works to be interior and exterior of the building
Landlords
- Acted on the letting and management of multiple property portfolios for a wide range of investor clients across all types of commercial property, including
- retail parks
- office blocks
- multi-use buildings
- industrial parks and sites
- government buildings
- shopping centres.
- Acted on the letting of a £280 million trophy building in Mayfair to a single end-user for its flagship store.
- General property services for commercial landlord clients.
- Pre-lets of commercial occupation units on development sites
HNW Family Offices
- Multiple acquisitions and disposals of investment properties with portfolio management across family-owned businesses.
- Acted on the acquisition and disposal of prime central London residential premises, ranging from £6 million to £45 million.
- Acted for an HNW family on their acquisition of a portfolio of properties in the leisure sector, involving overage clawback provisions.
- Acted as the family lawyer for an ultra-HNW family, including co-ordinating referrals to colleagues specialising in other disciplines when necessary.
Development
- Acted for the developer of multi-floor residential blocks in central London.
- Acted for the developer of multiple re-purposed commercial buildings for conversion to residential, with unit numbers ranging for 30 to 150.
- Acted either for the funder or the developer on several town-centre rejuvenation projects, including CPO involvement.
- Acted for the funder and forward-purchase buyer on the development of various office and multi-use properties.
- Negotiated options and overage agreements for landowner clients.
Residential Property
- Acted for the developer of multi-floor residential blocks in central London.
- Acted for the developer of multiple re-purposed commercial buildings for conversion to residential, with unit numbers ranging from 30 to 150.
- Acted on the sale of a £45m house in Mayfair.
- Acted on the acquisition of several apartments, with purchase prices each around £8m, in the Regents Park area.
- Acted on the sales/acquisitions of several houses in St John’s Wood, with prices ranging from around £6m to £15m+.
Recognition
Member of The Whitehall Group
Member of Cambridge University Land Society
Career
Susan qualified as a solicitor in 1985. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2022, she worked at the following firms:
- Ince
- Davenport Lyons
- Speechly Bircham