Speechly Bircham has appointed a new partner to its planning and environmental team.
On 27 February, Richard Keczkes will join the firm from Nabarro Nathanson, where for nine years he has been a senior planning lawyer, acting for a range of blue-chip clients that included property developers, investors and owners.
The appointment mirrors a recent growth in Speechly’s commercial property practice. In 2005, the division saw a 40% increase in turnover on the back of several high-profile projects, many of which required planning input.
Head of commercial property Charles Palmer said that Keczkes was “well known” to the firm’s planning team through his work with the City of London Law Society planning and environment committee.
He added that Keczkes would continue the team’s involvement in strategic developments for financial institutions, investors and major public sector bodies, alongside its work on high-value compulsory purchase claims.
Keczkes, who qualified in 1992, is also a member of the Law Society’s specialist planning panel and a legal associate of the Royal Town Planning Institute, where he sits on the development control panel.
References: EGi Legal News 23/02/06
