Lodders hires partner to head-up new environmental law service

Lodders has appointed environmental lawyer Lee McBride as partner to head up its new dedicated environmental law service, working alongside the Real Estate, Business Property & Renewables, and Agriculture teams.

McBride was formerly head of the environmental law practice at the Birmingham office of international law firm GowlingWLG (formerly Wragge & co), where he was a partner for over 20 years and involved in the real estate and environmental aspects of large corporate M&A transactions and major real estate, and other projects across numerous sectors including defence, energy, motor, health, and social housing.

He has specialised in environmental law for 29 years, and has particular expertise in dealing with contaminated land, permitting, waste and other environmental issues that arise in real estate and corporate transactions.

He also has extensive real estate experience, advising on numerous £ multi–million sales, purchases and lettings for national household names.

Described by Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession (environmental law) as ‘very solid on real estate-related work’ and also named as a Leading Individual by the Legal 500 UK, Lee will be part of Lodders’ top-ranking real estate practice, which is one of the largest in the Midlands with 30 specialist real estate, commercial property, planning, construction, and highways law legal experts.

“Lee joins the firm to help drive its ongoing growth strategy that will build on Lodders’ award-winning land-based legal advisory work and growing demand for land contamination and remediation legal advice, especially from landowners, national and regional property developers, investment companies, and land promotors,” explains Mark Miller, head of the real estate team.

“His knowledge complements our various existing specialisms and expertise in the real estate practice, including planning, highways and construction, and his environmental law knowledge will be of considerable relevance and value to all our developer clients.

Environmental law

“Environmental law covers a wide area, but Lee is one of only a small number of legal practitioners who can claim to have a real expertise in this field. There is a growing need and demand for advice in this complex, highly specialised area of the law, especially from organisations looking to develop brownfield and brownland sites that will require remediation before future development.”

He adds: “Lee is as much a commercial property lawyer as an environmental law specialist, and therefore his knowledge and expertise also adds significant depth to the real estate team’s corporate property capability, and complements our well-established specialism in highways, planning and construction.”

On his move to Lodders, Lee says: “Lodders is a progressive, forward-thinking firm, with an excellent reputation for providing high quality client service.”