Charlotte
Spowage

Charlotte is a Director in our Real Estate Team, specialising in residential development work. With over a decade of experience in this sector, Charlotte acts for a range of national and regional housebuilders and has a great deal of experience in site amalgamation and acquisitions for residential developments. Charlotte acts for both landowners (as seller) and developers (as buyers) and her work includes collaboration and promotion agreements, conditional contracts, options, exclusivity agreements, deeds of easements, overage agreements, legal charges and transfers.

Charlotte finds structuring long-term deals that stand the test of time (a conditional contract with various phased drawdowns and triggers, for example), to be the most rewarding part of her work, because, she says, as these kinds of deals can be several years in the making it is a challenge to ensure the various nuances link together comprehensively to facilitate a seamless transaction.

Results driven

Describing her approach to client work as “flexible and results driven”, Charlotte enjoys getting to grips with her client’s desired outcomes and she keeps this information at the forefront of each deal. “Keeping in mind a clear end result helps me to stay focused and problem solve along the way,  rather than getting side-tracked by ancillary issues that will, inevitably, crop up in these kind of deals”.

Charlotte believes that prioritisation and communication are key to successfully managing deals with many moving parts to make sure that work progresses effectively.  The long-term  considerations and consequences of development work, particularly for residential use, are complex and always present a challenge, which is why she works collaboratively with colleagues from our Planning and Construction teams, as well as E&I, Regulatory and the City and Estates team.

A commercial approach

When asked to describe her working style, Charlotte says, “Practical. There’s little point coming up with a comprehensive legal solution if the means to achieve it are undesirable or unworkable for the client. It’s essential to understand not only the legal challenges and complexities of a deal, but also the commercial constraints and considerations”.  Charlotte points out that Walker Morris encourages its lawyers to create their own best working practices, which enables them to tailor their approach for individual clients or a particular matter. “It’s great to have that combination of freedom and support”.

Charlotte is a dedicated supervisor of a trainee solicitor and enjoys sharing her knowledge and experiences with the junior members of the team.