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Portrait of Donald Lambert

Profile

Donald is a consultant in the firm’s real estate litigation team. His practice covers a broad range of disputes throughout the real estate sector. He advises clients in litigation before the English courts and in all forms of arbitration and expert determination.

He has many years of experience in all aspects of commercial asset management, ranging from business lease renewals to tenant default, with a particular interest in tenant insolvency. In that context he has advised landlords on numerous tenant insolvencies including administration, CVAs and schemes such as those proposed by Travelodge, NPC and others.

His recent work has focused on disputes related to both commercial and residential development. This involves advising on remedies for breach of development agreements, forward funding and conditional sale agreements. Donald is also heavily involved in the firm’s work on fire safety including advising on contract terminations, liability for remedial works and claims against developers.

Donald is a member of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, the Property Litigation Association and the RICS Dilapidations Forum. He is consistently recognised in the leading legal directories. In the current Chambers UK guide, a client refers to him as "…very experienced and very commercially smart", and the latest edition of The Legal 500 describes him as impressively clever and a lateral thinker, with a remarkable ability to find new angles in law to apply to a case’s facts”. 

Recent work highlights

  • Settling a long running case in the Technology and Construction Court involving four parties in a dispute over the design and installation of the power supply to 200 flats.
  • Advising a number of clients on jurisdictional issues which determined whether the Commercial Agents Regulations applied to their agreements and which court had jurisdiction to determine disputes over termination.
  • Acting for the landlord of a retail park in Northern England to recover in excess of £300,000 in rent and service charge from former tenants, while seeking a new letting.
  • Successfully recovering damages and costs from licenced conveyancers who failed to alert a purchaser to unusual restrictions on the use of part of the area included in their demise.
  • Acting in a number of significant dilapidations claims advising on the extent of recovery and diminution to the value of the landlord’s reversion and also on the interplay of disrepair issues.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC311575 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 419867.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP