About
- Clarke Willmott LLP > E&W – Bristol - Clarke Willmott LLP > E&W – Bristol Clarke Willmott LLP is a law firm with a regional, sector-led approach across England and Wales. it invests time in developing relationships with clients and is known for its high level of service, straightforward manner and transparent fee solutions. The firm: Recognising that clients prefer working with lawyers who understand the climate in which they operate and how their business actually works day-to-day, Clarke Willmott decided a number of years ago to adopt a sector-led approach. The success of this strategy is evident by its reputation in a number of key industry areas. These include its 100-strong real estate and construction group, nationally renowned 60-strong social housing group, and specialist retail group. It also has leading teams advising on private client, commercial services, agriculture, renewable energy and sport. Clarke Willmott works with an extensive client base of private sector businesses, sole traders, public sector bodies, high-net-worth individuals and charitable organisations, and they advise on almost every aspect of the law. Clarke Willmott has seven regional offices and over 650 lawyers and support staff, including over 110 partners. The focus at Clarke Willmott is on steady, repeatable, year-on-year planned growth. It will continue to develop its teams in order to deliver services on a national basis. Types of work undertaken: Clarke Willmott has expertise across a range of industry sectors and has market-leading teams in: Agriculture: the agriculture and estates team provides a full complement of legal services (both contentious and non-contentious) to the agricultural and rural landowning communities nationally. Banking and finance: advises clearing and private banks, building societies, specialist lenders and borrowers (both corporate and individual) on all aspects of lending transactions and related issues including recoveries, financial litigation and professional negligence claims. Commercial services: advises companies of all sizes, from high-growth and entrepreneurial businesses to SMEs and larger corporates, on transactional and commercial work, contractual issues, employment services, procurement, restructuring and insolvency, litigation and debt collection. Financial services: offers sector-focused expertise from a range of different practice areas, notably corporate and litigation. Clients include product providers, brokers, lenders and financial advisers, and businesses requiring authorisation for consumer credit activities. Green energy: advice spans all aspects of green energy work including renewable and nuclear energy from inception of a project through to planning, acquisition, financing, construction, regulation, commissioning, grid connection and subsequent operation of plants and facilities. Housebuilder: regarded as leading legal advisers to the residential development sector, acting for many of the UK’s largest volume housebuilders as well as for strategic land companies, smaller traditional builders and niche start-up ventures with particular expertise in all property aspects. Intellectual property: acts for all types of businesses from new start-ups to household names in relation to the protection, enforcement and exploitation of their intellectual property rights. Private client: particular experience in acting for professionals, high-net-worth individuals, family businesses and those with interests in the entertainment, sports and agricultural sectors. Provides advice on UK and international succession planning, trusts, tax and wealth protection as well as divorce and family law, , property issues, litigation, and personal injury and clinical negligence. Real estate: this national team is one of the largest of its kind in the UK and has a deep sector knowledge advising across the full range of commercial property matters. Expertise covers construction and procurement, development, investment (including complex landlord and tenant, acquisition and disposal issues), regeneration, planning & environmental, property litigation, property finance, property tax, telecommunications and asset management. Social housing: the national team of highly experienced, sector focused lawyers is one of the largest in the UK. The team acts for both national and regional registered providers, including most major frameworks, and provides specialist advice across a comprehensive range of legal areas. Technology: services include drafting and negotiating large-scale ICT acquisitions, including appropriate service level agreements, ICT outsourcing, managed service provision, website design and development, Cloud service agreements, software as a service data protection issues and social media issues. ### Languages - All main business languages ### Memberships - Society of Construction Law - Institute of Directors - Solicitors Regulation Authority - The Law Society of England & Wales ### Staffing Figures - 0 Number of UK partners - 0 Number of other UK fee-earners
Office locations
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Cardiff Clarke Willmott LLP 2nd Floor, 2 Callaghan Square CF10 5BT Wales
Practice areas
Lawyers in this office
Bethan Evans
Bethan is a banking and finance lawyer. She advises on all kinds of corporate and commercial funding matters, encompassing facility, security and intercreditor documents. Her particular specialism is property development finance, and she also specialises in third sector lending and social housing finance. She is experienced in project financing (in particular clean energy) and education finance. · Banking & Finance
Clare Gregory
Real Estate
Fraser MacRae
Fraser MacRae is a partner in Clarke Willmott solicitors' Cardiff Social Housing team specialising in funding in the social housing and education sectors. · Social Housing
James Williams
James is an experienced construction solicitor. He qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales in 1999. After working for a leading firm in Birmingham, he emigrated to Australia and qualified as a solicitor in Queensland in 2003, working in both Brisbane and Sydney. In 2008, James relocated to the Middle East and worked at a major law firm in the United Arab Emirates and at one of the region’s Government backed master developers. He returned to his native Wales in 2014 and was a partner at Acuity Law in Cardiff. James joined Clarke Willmott in October 2024 and has been ranked both in Chambers and in the Legal 500. How James can help you James specialises in non contentious construction matters, largely related to city regeneration, and has worked on various developments comprising, office blocks, apartments, hotels and sports stadia. James has experience of working with standard form building contracts such as the JCT and NEC suites and, through his time in the Middle East, has extensive experience of working with the FIDIC contracts. James also has significant experience of acting for banks and funds providing development finance and has also acted on numerous residential development projects. James has extensive experience of drafting and negotiating development agreements, building contracts, consultant appointments, collateral warranties and other related documents including, for example, letters of intent and letters of reliance. James also has extensive experience of acting for banks providing finance for construction projects and has worked on numerous funded developments in Wales and further afield. Experience James’s recent reported cases: Acting on behalf of a developer in respect of the development of a new Welsh headquarters for a national broadcaster comprising new offices, television and radio studios and a roof garden. The project had a construction cost of circa £60 million. Acting on behalf of the developer of a new mixed use transport interchange in Cardiff containing various sections comprising an office block, a residential apartment tower, a bus station with an external turning and parking apron and commercial space with a value of circa £100,000,000. Acting on behalf of a Cardiff based developer in respect of the refurbishment of the old Post Office in Cardiff and its reconfiguration, extension and conversion into the city’s newest 4 star hotel. The value of the project was circa £40,000,000. Acting on behalf of a Cardiff based developer in respect of the design and construction of Wales’ largest office block with a build value of circa £60,000,000. Acting on behalf of a Welsh Housing Association in the design and construction of a new build residential apartment block in Swansea with a value of circa £30,000,000. Acting for a sub-contractor and advising on the sub-contract terms and conditions in relation to a sub-contract package for the construction of the new national stadium for the English Football Association in Wembley, North London; Drafting and negotiating a design and build contract based on the 1999 FIDIC Yellow Book for the design and construction of a marina to be built by one of Dubai’s master property developers. Acting on behalf of one of Wales’s largest funding institutions in respect of a circa £75,000,00 development facility in respect of the construction of approximately 800 new homes in Cardiff. · Construction
Julia Morris
Julia is a partner in our commercial property team having joined Clarke Willmott in 2022. Julia previously worked as a partner at Le Gros Solicitors (a boutique property firm in Cardiff) for 11 years and prior was a Senior Associate at international law firm Eversheds Sutherland. Julia has a wide range of commercial property experience, having acted for a number of commercial and residential developer clients and commercial landlords in connection with their estate management work. Julia also specialises in development work, acting for both the private and public sector, often using complex structures and has regularly managed large scale transactions – from options, site acquisitions, site set up, funding and development agreements, construction and profit-sharing arrangements. Julia’s clients include high profile national property investors, local developers, trusts and commercial landlords. She has extensive experience in providing strategic structuring advice and asset management of large portfolios. · Real Estate
Vicky Kells
Vicky Kells is a partner in Clarke Willmott solicitors' Cardiff Social Housing team specialising in charging affordable housing portfolios. · Social Housing