Sophie Taylor is an associate in our Real Estate Practice Group based in our Birmingham office. Sophie is a newly qualified solicitor with more 12 months of experience in real estate and planning. Sophie also spent time with the restructuring and insolvency, banking and pensions teams throughout her training contract with Squire Sanders. Sophie has experience in both litigation and transactional matters. 

She studied law at Nottingham Trent University, completing one year of legal work experience with the Crown Prosecution Service in London. Sophie then completed her Legal Practice Course at Nottingham Law School.

During the third year at Nottingham Trent University, Sophie worked on a team within the Crown Prosecution Service in London piloting the drugs intervention programme in South London boroughs before assisting this initiative in expanding nationwide.

Sophie is an active member of the Birmingham Fundraising Committee and also participates in the Business in the Community initiative, attending a local primary school to assist the pupils with reading and taking part in the annual Business in the Community challenges.

Representative Experience

• Assisting with a planning public inquiry in Ashby De La Zouch for a retail client including instructing counsel, preparing a witness proof and attending the hearing to assist counsel and report to the appeal team (consisting of client, architect and planning consultant) on progress at the hearing.
• Assisting with a planning public inquiry in Stratford for a retail client on the client’s prospects of success in a judicial review including a challenge to the way in which the council had granted a variation to planning permission at a rival site. Negotiating and drafting a consent order to the local council to quash the rival’s planning permission.
• Regularly advising a chain supermarket operator on its s.106 agreements and ancillary s.278 agreements for the Midlands region including negotiating on the operator’s behalf with the local councils, addressing such issues as hours of opening, employment and delivery restrictions.
• Dealing with the recovery of cash deposits and release of bonds associated with s.278 highways agreements.
• Advising a charity a provider of care and residential facilities for disabled people on procedures to secure the adoption of historic estate roads through the statutory process at a site in Carmarthenshire and on the provision of street lighting and drainage on site.
• Advising a charity client on the development potential of its freehold portfolio in connection with a proposed freehold disposal programme.