Simon Child
Legal Director
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Very calm, very effective and experienced in achieving resolution quickly and efficiently. Both a pleasure to work with and someone we have full confidence in to represent our interests.
Simon has acted for a broad range of developers, financial institutions, landlords and tenants in respect of all forms of commercial, residential and mixed-use real estate matters across the country.
His early experience in the management of and buying, selling and development of shopping centres gave him a unique insight into landlords and investment which he can utilise when acting for landlords or tenants.
He has since advised on many student developments and provided substantial corporate support. Simon has worked on all forms of property matters including office, warehouse and retail.
Main areas of practice
Simon’s main passion and expertise is retail, where he advises national occupiers on everything from their acquisitions, relocations and expansions to disposals, lease renewals, re-gears, together with all types of day-to-day portfolio management matters (fit out, wayleaves, etc). He liaises carefully with his litigation, corporate and employment colleagues to ensure a seamless and complete service for clients (in particular in respect of all 54 Act notices, processes and procedures).
Simon continues to work with investors and to advise local developers on their finance and site assembly (in particular options and promotion agreements, as well as plot sales), assisting with planning, resolving title issues, and liaising with local authorities and land owners as required.
Clients
Current clients include a national optician, as well as a large veterinary practice and the southern arm of a well-known supermarket. Other clients include food retailers and restaurants, electric vehicle dealerships and software engineers.
Simon has worked with a variety of individuals and companies from start-ups to well established entities and tailors his approach and advice accordingly.
Expertise
Career
Simon has over 20 years’ legal experience.
After graduating from Nottingham University with a LLB (Hons) in Law and the Legal Practice Course with distinction at Nottingham Law School, Simon trained at a large global firm in Nottingham and qualified into that firm’s Birmingham office in 2004. He went on to work in London for 10 years, then joined a firm in Guildford as a partner, before reuniting in 2022 with Iain Munro and Matthew Bell at Blake Morgan.
Contact details
Significant Experience
- The sale and purchase of various shopping centres and leisure schemes ranging in value from £62m to £99m.
- Acting for a client in respect of a review and revamp of its entire 400 store portfolio.
- Assisting with fast-paced roll outs of new stores across the country.
Additional Expertise
Simon spent nearly a year on secondment in-house with a large telecoms client as the sole property counsel at the time of the 4G auction which was an invaluable experience.