Birketts—five appointments

Birketts has strengthened its agriculture offering with the arrival of five specialist lawyers at its growing Bristol office. The team is led by partner Edward Venmore and legal director Danielle Spalding, alongside senior associate Kate Lucas and associates Arron Joliffe and Laura Prouse.

Venmore advises on rural land, farming businesses and estate matters, with experience spanning rural land disputes, agricultural tenancies, partnership disputes and challenges to government decisions. Spalding acts for farmers, landowners, estates and developers, advising on agricultural land and business disputes, succession issues and environmental schemes and regulatory frameworks.

The new team builds on Birketts’ established agricultural practice and joins senior associate Oliver Evans in supporting clients across the West of England and Wales. Chris Coupland, partner and head of agriculture, said the appointments bring ‘additional reach into the West’ and ‘an increase in the breadth of expertise within the Bristol team’.

Venmore said Birketts had made ‘a clear commitment to bringing its agricultural offering to the West’, while Spalding added that the firm’s investment ‘demonstrates real commitment to supporting’ landowning clients and rural businesses facing increasingly complex challenges.