Trevor Ivory

Trevor Ivory

He/himPartner
One of the country’s leading planning lawyers.
Legal 500 2022
About

Trevor Ivory is a planning lawyer, with over 20 years experience advising developers, landowners and the public sector on major mixed use developments and urban regeneration projects.

Trevor helps his clients to deliver complicated development projects, securing legally robust consents as quickly as possible. He advises on all aspects of planning, compulsory purchase and highways law.

Clients often trust Trevor with projects involving specialist assets classes such as data centers, specialist residential and film studio developments, for which the planning system often needs to evolve to accommodate different models of delivery and different approaches to value. He also advises on large infrastructure projects.

He has been involved with some of the most significant planning cases of recent times, and regularly appears for clients at examination hearings and public inquiries.

Trevor heads our UK planning team. He regularly speaks and writes on planning matters, and is widely recognised as one of the leading lawyers in the field.

Areas of FocusReal Estate
Professional QualificationsSolicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales

EXPERIENCE

  • Acting for MEPC and its joint venture partners in connection with the 1.4m sq ft office-led mixed used redevelopment of Paradise Circus, Birmingham. The development is one of the largest regeneration projects in the UK, the latest phase of which is a 49-storey Build to Rent octagonal tower. Trevor is advising developers on similar projects across the UK.
  • Advising Ark Data Centres on its developments across the UK, including its 600,000 sq ft (96MW) new data centre development at Union Park in Hillingdon, West London. Trevor acts for many of the major developers of data centres in the UK, and is currently advising on projects totaling in excess of 400MW of capacity.
  • Won the seminal Supreme Court case of Suffolk Coastal v Hopkins Homes on the correct interpretation of the Government's housing policies. This was Trevor's second victory in the UK Supreme Court, and stands alongside many victories in the Court of Appeal and High Court.
  • Acts for a wide range of investors, including a US private equity house that acquired a major UK housebuilder in 2021.
  • Acting for HS2 on all aspects of planning and compulsory purchase compensation in connection with the delivery of the new high speed railway line connecting London to Birmingham and cities in the north of England.
Education
  • University of East Anglia, LLB (hons), 1999
  • The College of Law, Legal Practice Course - Distinction, 2000

Awards

  • Trevor embodies, “the exact traits one would hope for in a planning counsel.” Legal 500, 2023
  • Ranked as a leading individual in both the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners in 2023.

Prior Experience

  • 2015 to date, Partner, DLA Piper
  • 2010 to 2015, Partner and Head of the Planning and Environmental Law team, UK based law firm
  • 2000 to 2010, Associate, UK based international law firm

Memberships And Affiliations

  • Member of the Law Society
  • President of the Planning & Development Association
  • West Midlands Steering Committee Member for the UK Apartments Association

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