Meet the Property Section advisory committee

Yasaman Asaad

Yasaman is a renowned real estate solicitor based in London, dealing with high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) and ultra-HNWI, both from the UK and from overseas. 

Yasaman deals with both residential and commercial and assists her clients with expanding their property portfolios in the UK.

In addition, Yasaman has strong personal connections with developers, architects, interior designers and lenders (both High Street and private) to provide a one-stop-shop for all aspects of UK property. 

Yasaman has a wealth of experience in dealing with all aspects of commercial and residential property on behalf of individuals, businesses and financial institutions.

Her clients range from high net worth individuals to companies and small families based nationally and internationally (Middle East and Asia).  

Rita Bange 

Rita is a major projects solicitor for Westminster City Council, having previously been the principal property and regeneration solicitor at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

She is also the national lead for housing and regeneration for Lawyers in Local Government (LLG) and was shortlisted for In-house Solicitor of the Year at Law Society Awards 2021.

Rita previously worked at several leading in house and in private practice organisations.

She has broad experience working on transactions, including acquisitions and disposals for both investment and development purposes, and tenant matters as well as general commercial property transactions.

Rita has particular knowledge and expertise in large scale development/regeneration projects.

Clare Harman Clark (chair) 

Clare is a senior counsel (knowledge) at Taylor Wessing LLP in the City of London.

She worked as a journalist before retraining into law, qualifying at Clifford Chance LLP and specialising for well over a decade in complex and high-value commercial real estate developments and transactions.

She has a particular interest in the application of technology on the future practice of law and has written extensively in the legal press and for various titles, including Career Development for Women Lawyers and The Evolving Role of the Professional Support Lawyer.

Clare also lectures on the Legal Practice Course at the University of Westminster and sits on the editorial board of the Landlord and Tenant Review.

Jennifer Chappell

Jennifer is a real estate counsel and knowledge lawyer in the real estate team at BDB Pitmans LLP.

She is responsible for knowledge management, training, legal updates, precedents and risk within the department. She trained and practised as a commercial property transactional lawyer for several years in the City before moving to BDB in 2003. 

Sarah Cookson (vice chair) 

Sarah is a director and head of conveyancing at Yorkshire Firm Switalskis Solicitors and is based at their Knaresborough office. 

Her experience is in residential property covering freehold and leasehold sales, purchases, transfers and remortgage together with new build purchase transactions.

Nick Dell

Nick is a senior associate in the commercial property team at Stone King LLP in Bath. He deals with a broad range of commercial property work for commercial, educational and charitable institutions.

He previously worked at partner level for several leading South West law firms, and also worked for national housebuilder Redrow Homes and as company secretary and head of legal at Bristol Water.

Warren Gordon 

Warren is a senior professional support lawyer in the real estate team at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP.

He is a member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee. He is also secretary of the Land Law Committee of the City of London Law Society.

Warren writes regularly for Property in Practice and other leading property industry publications. He is also a frequent public speaker.

Karen Lee

Karen is a specialist in residential development, with substantial experience of acting for commercial developers and major housebuilders concentrating on complex land assembly, sale and acquisition of large scale strategic commercial, residential and mixed use developments.

Joanne Parsons

Joanne is a senior associate solicitor in the real estate department at Aaron & Partners, based in their Shrewsbury Office specialising in residential property.  

Joanne has worked in residential property for over 20 years. Her practice during this time has dealt with all manner of residential property transactions, including complex leasehold matters, acquisition of development sites and preparation of plot sales, as well as dealing with extensive and unregistered estates.  

Joanne’s role includes the research, collaboration and dissemination required to meet head-on the challenges of changes in legislation, case law and practice that impact on the daily lives of all residential property lawyers. 

Anna Russell-Knee 

Anna’s specialist area is planning and environmental law.

She is Crown Counsel for the Cayman Islands Government, having previously spent more than twelve years as a private practice solicitor in England. 

Anna provides training courses, presents webinars and writes for Property in Practice, bringing her expertise into the field of property law.

Peter Rodd

Peter is the former senior partner and now consultant at a 15-partner high street practice based in East Kent.

He is the Law Society Council member for Residential Conveyancing and chief assessor for CQS.

Peter is a past chair of the Property Section advisory committee and a member of the Law Society Conveyancing and Land Law Committee.

Peter is a former member of the CQS Technical Panel, the Law Society’s Money Laundering, Home Information Pack and E-Conveyancing Task Forces. 

He lectures on a variety of property-related legal matters and writes regularly for Property in Practice and other legal publications.

Nina Wilson

Nina is a partner at Wilson Browne LLP, a Legal 500 firm based in Northamptonshire.

She has practised as a commercial property solicitor for almost 20 years, and was previously responsible for the residential conveyancing team in the firm.

Nina acts for landlords, tenants, developers and landowners in a wide range of property transactions.