Deepening Our Specialist Expertise to Meet Our Clients’ Needs

At SE-Solicitors, the way we grow our team is shaped by the needs of our clients. That means we go beyond adding capacity to actively invest in people whose knowledge and experience strengthen the areas in which our clients already look to us for support.

With that in mind, I am delighted to welcome two senior lawyers to our team: Derek Walsh, who joins us as a Director in Dispute Resolution, and Jonathan Craft, who joins as a Senior Associate in Banking and Finance.

These are both established areas of expertise for SE-Solicitors. What makes the appointments particularly valuable is the highly specific experience Derek and Jonathan bring: enabling us to deepen our existing services and provide a rare level of joined-up support when clients face complex or unusual challenges.

Specialist support for land, rural and commercial disputes

Many of our farming, landed estate and property clients have interests that cut across several areas of law. A disagreement over access, a boundary or a tenancy can quickly affect plans for development, diversification, succession or sale. Derek’s experience is particularly relevant in these situations because his work sits at the intersection of agricultural, property and commercial disputes.

Derek began his legal career in the National Farmers Union’s head office legal team and has spent more than 20 years advising farmers, agribusinesses, landed estates, developers and other commercial clients. His expertise includes agricultural tenancies, boundaries, adverse possession, restrictive covenants, lease termination, contractual and commodity disputes, professional negligence and partnership disputes.

He also brings an uncommon depth of knowledge in public rights of way law. Derek has represented landowners in complex objections to claimed rights of way and in applications for diversion and extinguishment orders, including the notable Vixen Tor access case on Dartmoor.

That specialism adds further strength to our existing Agriculture, Commercial Property and Dispute Resolution services. It will help us support clients not only when a dispute has arisen, but also when a potential issue needs to be understood early – before it affects the value, development or future use of land.

As Derek explains: “SE-Solicitors already has a highly regarded agricultural practice, which was one of the things that attracted me to the firm. I’m looking forward to working alongside colleagues across Agriculture, Commercial Property and Dispute Resolution to help clients deal with problems involving their land, businesses and commercial relationships.”

A lender’s perspective on asset finance

Our Banking and Finance team already has a strong national reputation for asset finance litigation, including financial fraud, asset tracing and recovery, delivery-up proceedings and claims against guarantors. Jonathan’s appointment allows us to build on that contentious expertise by expanding the support we provide at the outset of a transaction.

Jonathan began his legal career at Penningtons Manches Cooper, working within its asset-based lending practice across the full lifecycle of lending transactions. He then moved into the finance industry, where he led an established family-run specialist finance business and gained 15 years’ client-side lending experience.

It is this combination that makes his perspective so valuable. Jonathan understands the law, but he also understands how lenders operate, the commercial pressures behind their decisions and what clients need from their legal advisers. He has seen first-hand how weaknesses in agreements, security arrangements or transaction structures emerge when a facility runs into difficulty.

Working alongside Director Anis Waiz and our existing Banking and Finance team, Jonathan will help us apply those lessons earlier. This includes advising on the drafting and review of finance agreements, transaction structures, security arrangements and wider risk management, as well as supporting clients if a dispute subsequently develops.

Jonathan says: “Having worked both as a legal adviser to asset finance providers and within the industry itself, I understand the business realities lenders face. The real value lies in combining legally robust advice with commercial understanding, and using the lessons learned when transactions go wrong to help clients mitigate risk much earlier.”

More expertise, connected around the client

Derek and Jonathan work in very different fields, but there is an important common thread. Both bring specialist knowledge grounded in a close understanding of the client’s world, and both recognise the value of identifying risk before it becomes a more costly problem.

Their appointments are not about creating new and separate service lines. They deepen areas in which we already advise our clients and strengthen the connections between our teams. Whether a matter involves land, a business relationship or a lending transaction, our aim is to bring together the right expertise around the client and the outcome they are seeking.

I am very pleased to welcome Derek and Jonathan to SE-Solicitors and look forward to introducing them to more of our clients over the coming months.