In the spotlight: Adam Burrage

In this edition of In the Spotlight, we get to know Adam Burrage.

Name: Adam Burrage

Job title: Partner

Area of expertise: Commercial property – development

What is your background?

I trained and practiced in London (with Olswang, since consumed by CMS!) for about five years before relocating to the West Country to chase fresh air and coastline. I joined Clarke Willmott in August 2021 and I’m very pleased to be on board. We have a great (and expanding) team, involved in a broad range of interesting regional and UK-wide work.

How do you help clients?

I act mainly for developer and landowner clients across a spectrum of residential and commercial development transactions. I guide clients through all stages of transactions, from input on heads of terms to negotiating conditional contracts, options, overage deeds and associated arrangements. Alongside this I maintain a general commercial property practice, as appropriate to address the needs of our clients, centred mainly on freehold/leasehold acquisitions and disposals of commercial property across retail and other sectors. The best description of my client-facing intention is to support clients through a premier legal service offering, demystifying transaction complexities to get the deal done.

What is your favourite part of the job?

Getting a deal across the line to achieve the client’s objectives. My work is transactional and there is a definite “buzz” associated with negotiating the various moving parts of a deal and ultimately piecing together the jigsaw to make the right things happen in the right way, in the right order. Dating documents to deliver successful outcomes to clients is quite rewarding. I’m also a huge fan of reading the detail around proposed new housing developments; the layout, design, plot/open space mix and technical specs can be pretty interesting to me because I have an enduring personal interest in renovating houses and construction in general. I’m a DIY enthusiast so I’m always keen to immerse myself in “spades in the ground” detail if I can!

What is coming down the tracks for developers?

It will be very interesting to see how the Government approaches the Residential Property Developer Tax. The idea of raising funds to support remediation of dangerous cladding is great in theory but the detail of the levy is bound to cause difficulties in the sector (perhaps in unintended ways). The Government’s annual target of 300,000 new homes remains a high bar and we need housebuilding to be prioritised and streamlined. Modern methods of construction present countless opportunities for efficiency gains and sustainability-focused building methods so the next decade will also prove interesting on that front. I personally feel that modular construction is surely going to overtake traditional brick build in the medium-term future. We must ensure we’re on the front foot with these trends so we can lead conversations and position ourselves to best support our clients’ businesses.