Richard was a solicitor at Natural England since 2010 and was the Head of Legal Services since 2017. Richard led on many of Natural England’s high-profile litigation and enforcement cases and provided advice to Natural England’s teams on the emergence of the Environment Act 2021 and Nature Green Paper. Richard is a highly distinguished environmental lawyer and has worked on a number of high-profile nationally significant infrastructure, planning, and species licencing cases. These include nuclear power stations, offshore windfarms, port developments and HS2. Richard trained at Collyer Bristow LLP in London and holds an LLM in Environmental Law from UCL.

Penny has lead a Freeths team which has recently won a landmark environmental case in Harris vs Environment Agency. The High Court ruled that key European nature conservation laws remain enforceable against the Environment Agency (and by implication other public bodies), despite the UK having left the EU. Click here > to read our press release. Having trained in the City (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s environment team) and with 20 years’ experience in both private practice and in-house roles, Penny is a solid and experienced all-round environmental lawyer with particular expertise in “natural environment” law. Within the “natural environment” niche, she has built a strong, national reputation in advising a wide range of private and public sector clients. She advises on the regulation of protected habitats, protected species, water resources, air quality and environmental impact assessment. Her clients are most often developers, environmental consultancies, mineral sector operators and water sector operators. Penny works with clients to overcome the constraints imposed by natural environment law so as to deliver planning permissions and the other environmental consents they need (e.g. protected species licences, environmental permits, abstraction licences). She also advises local authorities, objectors and environmental organisations on these issues. She has significant experience in defending public and private sector clients when faced with environmental-related regulatory or criminal proceedings. These could be brought by the Environment Agency, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, the Forestry Commission or the police (e.g. pollution offences, protected species offences, breaches of permits/licences). More generally, she advises on the environmental aspects of property and company transactions where she negotiates to limit her client’s environmental liabilities. She also has significant experience in health and safety law and frequently advises her clients on health and safety compliance. Penny is listed as a Leading Individual in Chambers & Partners (2023 edition). She is listed as a Recommended Lawyer and Leading Individual in the Legal 500 (2023 edition) for Real Estate Environment.