Home office: Taunton
Polly Ridgway is an experienced Senior Associate in the Commercial and Private Client Litigation team specialising in agricultural and agri-business disputes and property litigation. Polly’s considerable expertise includes working with private clients, agricultural clients and businesses. She has enjoyed success in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court with the high profile proprietary estoppel case Guest vs Guest & Guest. Polly joined Clarke Willmott in 2015 having trained and qualified with a firm in the South West.
Polly has been recognised by Legal 500 as a ‘Rising Star’ in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 for Agricultural & Estates Litigation; by Chambers & Partners as an ‘Associate to watch’ in 2023 and 2024 for Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and is a Legal 500 Recommended Lawyer 2022 for Commercial Litigation. She is a member of the Agricultural Law Association and Somerset Centre of Management in Agriculture.
Experience
- Advising on property disputes including adverse possession, boundaries, private rights of way, easements, covenants, water disputes, nuisance and landlord/tenant disputes.
- Advising in relation to agricultural tenancies and occupation issues under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 and the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995.
- Advising businesses in a range of commercial disputes including breach of contract and debt disputes.
- Advising on all manner of farming partnership disputes
- Advising on Contentious Probate, Estates and Trusts: Inheritance (Provisions for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, challenging and defending cases involving validity of Wills, proprietary estoppel, disputes relating to administration of estates and claims under Trusts of Land Appointment of Trustees Act 1996.
- Success in the case of Guest & anor v Guest [2022] 3 WLR 911 on behalf of the claimant, in both the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Polly handled the day to day management of this is landmark case in the development of proprietary estoppel law which shone a national spotlight on the challenges of disputed farming inheritance. The outcome has received widespread coverage in the national press and further raised Polly’s profile as a leading expert in this growing area of law.
Recommendations
Polly has great experience in proprietary estoppel in agricultural work and numerous other matters, which are usually farming/family business partnerships related planning work. She is very strong for clients and really works for them. She is building up a lot of high-quality experience and is able to deal day to day with increasingly complex matters.
The Legal 500 2024
Polly Ridgway is a senior associate at the firm, and earns acclaim for her expertise in handling agricultural disputes.
Chambers & Partner 2024
Polly is proving to be a very safe pair of hands for complex matters
Agriculture & Rural Affairs Clients 2023