Seminars

Judith is frequently invited to deliver seminars and workshops  for solicitors’ regional associations and in-house training days.      

Real Estate Litigation
Judith frequently advises on commercial and residential developments, disputes over restrictive covenants, easements, rent reviews (commercial and licensed premises) and commercial and residential landlord and tenant problems.   She has a particular specialism in leasehold enfranchisement.

Private client work
Judith undertakes contentious probate, wills and trusts and has been instructed in connection with proceedings in Hong Kong , the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands.

Recommendations
Judith is ranked as a leading silk in Real Estate Litigation in the Legal 500, The Lawyer and Chambers & Partners, and has been described as "seeringly intelligent” , approachable",  and "good with clients" as well as being noted for "rolling her sleeves up".

Cases of Interest
The variety and experience of her practice is illustrated by the following (among other) cases in chronological order:

Re Bond Worth Ltd [1980] Ch 228
(retention of title clause, whether registrable as company charge)

Prudential Assurance Co Ltd v Newman Industries Ltd
[1981]Ch 257, [1982]Ch 204
(company, minority shareholders' rights, derivative and representative actions, reflective loss). Judith was part of the team appearing for the directors at the trial, which was the longest running company trial of its time. The directors appeared in person in the Court of Appeal. Judith was instructed to prepare the Notice and Grounds of Appeal on their behalf and took the then innovative step of drafting the Grounds of Appeal in the form of a skeleton argument containing detailed written submissions.

Re Fanshawe decd (1983)
(contentious probate, testamentary capacity, want of knowledge and approval, and appropriate costs order)

Re South Celynen Colliery (1983)
(mining, arbitration, rent review of surface and plant of then working colliery). Judith enjoyed the site inspection but regrettably was not able to go down the coal mine.

Watts v Midland Bank (1986) 2 BCC 98,961
(Company – whether derivative action by shareholders possible against receivers of company).

Crombie v Wren Group plc (1990)
(Company law – minority shareholders action; valuation of minority stake in company)

R v Lincoln City Council ex parte Wickes  Building Supplies Ltd
(1993) 92 LGR 215
(This case involved Sunday trading in breach of s 47 of the Shops Act 1950. The local authority laid successive informations before the Magistrates in respect of each Sunday that the store opened. The trader alleged that the local authority’s actions were unreasonable.  Held that the local authority was not acting unreasonably. This was during the  hey-day of Sunday trading in breach of the Shops Act 1950 - Judith found herself prosecuting in the Magistrates Courts as well as applying for civil injunctions to aid the criminal law under s 222 of the Local Government Act  and arguing whether s. 47 of the Shops Act contravened Art 30 of the Treaty of Rome. Her connections with several local authorities also led to advising upon matters as diverse as the ownership of the Warwick Town Wall and being instructed in numerous proceedings to restrain market operators from holding Sunday markets and weekly markets in breach of the local authority’s charter and statutory markets

Birmingham City Council  v Inshops plc (1992)
(indoor market – whether a market or a department store)

East Staffordshire Borough Council  v Windridge Pearce (1993)
(indoor market – whether a market or individual leases of shop units )

Abbey National plc v Moss [1994] 2 FCR 587
(joint tenancy between mother and daughter, trust for sale, condition of transfer to daughter that property would be a home for mother for life; whether mortgagee of daughter’s interest could insist in order for sale. In re Citro distinguished.)

After taking Silk in 1994, Judith began to specialise more in real estate litigation. However, she continues to enjoy a wide ranging practice and has been instructed in connection with private client work  in Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands.  Judith has also built up considerable expertise and is well regarded in the field of Leasehold Reform :

Amsprop Trading Ltd v Harris [1997] 1 WLR 1025
(whether superior landlord could enforce tenant’s covenant in sub-lease, relying upon s 56 LPA 1925)

Scott v National Trust [1998] 2 All ER 705
(instructed by the Attorney – General on behalf of charity. Judicial review and application of the Charities Act arising out of the National Trust's ban on deer-hunting on Exmoor)

Maes Finance v Leftleys [1998] PNLR 193, Times 13 November 1998
(professional negligence – mortgage frauds -joinder of proceedings – similar fact evidence)

Sportoffer Ltd v Erewash BC  [1999] 3 EGLR 136
(Landlord and tenant – assignment- proposed user would compete with landlord’s premises – whether consent unreasonably withheld)

Re Greenhaven Motors Ltd [1999] 1 BCLC 635, CA
(Company law – insolvency – power of liquidator to compromise)

R v Bristol Betting and Gaming Licensing Committee, ex parte O’Callaghan [2000] QB 451
(This was one of five conjoined appeals before a specially constituted Court of Appeal comprising Lord Bingham C.J., Lord Woolf M.R., and Sir Richard Scott V-C, in which the test for judicial bias was extensively considered)

Mobil Oil plc v Birmingham City Council [2001] EWCA Civ 1608: [2002]2 P+CR14
(rent review under lease of petrol station forecourt; the lease provided access to freehold land also owned by the claimant; whether the claimant had an implied easement or whether the lease provided the only access)

In the Matter of the Q Trusts [2001] CILR 481
(Trusts – fraud on the power – court sanction of trustees’ power to compromise proceedings)

Yenula Properties Ltd v Naidu [2002] 42 EG 162
(landlord and tenant – validity of notice given under s 20 Housing Act 1988; authority of solicitor to accept service of notice)

Re Land at Horn Lane (2002)
(declaration made under s. 84(2) LPA 1925 declaring that restrictive covenants no longer binding)

Speciality Shops Ltd v Yorkshire & Metropolitan Estates Ltd (2002)
(right of pre-emption – whether it had crystallised into an interest in land – s. 2 Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 – constructive trust)

Malekshad v Howard de Walden Estate Ltd [2003] AC 1013
(Leasehold Reform Act 1967 – meaning of “house” in s. 2(1)(b) and meaning of “material part” in s. 2(2))

Malekshad v Howard de Walden Estates Ltd (no 2) [2003] EWHC 3106, [2004] 1 WLR 862 [2004] 4 All ER 162 Neuberger J:

(Leasehold Enfranchisement – notice under LRA 1967 extending to both houses included in the tenancy, including that the mews house in respect of which he did not satisfy the residence requirement. Whether the notice needed to be amended and the terms upon which leave was to be given. Whether the Act continued the tenancy in respect of all the property in the tenancy, including the mews house which the tenant had not been entitled to claim. Held that the notice did need to be amended but that the tenancy continued in respect of all parts of the property demised, with the result that the tenant was entitled to serve a second notice of claim in respect of the mews house as the result of the removal of the residence requirement by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2003.)

Pennycook v Shaws (EAL) Ltd [2004] EWCA Civ 100; [2004] Ch 296; [2004] 2 All ER 665
(Landlord and Tenant Act 1954; Human Rights; Counter Notices; Court of Appeal held that Article 1 of the first protocol was engaged but that the measure was proportionate and did not violate the Human Rights Act).

Watergate Properties (Ellesmere) Ltd v Securicor Cash Service Ltd  Lewison J 8.11.05                                                                                              The Judge granted permission to appeal from an arbitration on a rent review under s 69(3) Arbitration Act 1996 and determined the substantive appeal in favour of the landlords on the ground that the arbitrator's decision was obviously wrong.                                     Judith Jackson QC appeared for the successful landlords.

Howard de Walden Estates Ltd v Maybury Court Freehold Company Limited (part of the Sportelli litigation) Court of Appeal [2007] EWCA Civ 1042 – valuation on a collective enfranchisement under LRHUDA 1993, conjoined appeals on preliminary issues concerning the deferment rate to be used in arriving at the value of the freeholder’s interest and whether ‘hope value’ should be included.
 
Howard de Walden Estates Ltd v Aggio & Ors HL [2008] 3 WLR 244; CA [2007] 3 WLR 542
The question for consideration was whether a headlessee of two flats in a block of flats was the qualifying tenant for the purposes of the Leasehold Reform Housing & Urban Development Act 1993 and was able to seek new leases of those two flats. The flats were not sublet on long leases and there was no other qualifying tenant. 71,  was overruled.  The case in the Court of Appeal is also of general interest on precedent as the CA held that a county court is, as a  matter of judicial precedent, bound by a previous first instance decision of the High Court.

Publications
Megarry's Rent Acts (11th Edition), Consultant Editor
Envis - Enforcing Money Judgments, Consultant Editor

Memberships
Property Bar Association
Professional Negligence Bar Association
Chancery Bar Association
Commercial Bar Association
Judith has been a director of Bar Mutual Insurance Fund Ltd since 2000; she is a founding member of the Property Bar Association and a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, where she serves on the Buildings Committee. She has served on the Supreme Court of Procedure Committee and the Bar Council and was Chairman of the Young Barristers' Committee in 1984.