Rural property specialist joins Midlands law firm

Published by

Peter Davison

Alex Robinson and Neal Patterson

Warwickshire law firm Wright Hassall has strengthened its farming and rural credentials with the appointment of a specialist agricultural property partner.

Neal Patterson has joined the Leamington Spa-based firm from Knights, bringing with him more than 15 years’ experience in rural property.

He specialises in non-contentious property matters for agricultural clients, dealing in the acquisition and disposal of farms, bare land, and estates.

Neal joins a team of four in the Farms and Rural Estates team at Wright Hassall, which is one of the UK's long-established agricultural law firms with an agricultural heritage spanning 177 years.

“I’m really excited to join,” he said. “Wright Hassall is such as well-recognised firm and the agricultural team is very well respected in the sector for its knowledge, experience and quality of service."

“I’m really looking forward to building on that and helping farmers and landowners grow their businesses and to enable rural communities to thrive. As someone who has grown up in a farming environment, it’s a real passion of mine.”

Neal is originally from County Down in Northern Ireland but is now based in Leicester.

He is a member of the Agricultural Law Association and is an alumnus of the Worshipful Company of Farmers having completed their Advanced Course in Agricultural Business Management at the Royal Agricultural University.

Prior to Knights, he spent a number of years in private practice and as an in-house lawyer for national charity, where he looked after their property portfolio and advised on their corporate trust holding body.

Alex Robinson, Head of Agriculture, said: “Neal brings a breadth of knowledge and interest in the agricultural, farming and rural business sector and will be a tremendous asset to our team and our clients.

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“One of the most important attributes which Neal brings is his passion for getting out there onto the farms to talk to the clients to help deliver the best advice and service, and that really fits into our ethos here at Wright Hassall.”

Wright Hassall is a full-service award-winning law firm, which was established in 1846 and employs more than 245 people, including almost 40 partners.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.