National law firm Irwin Mitchell is expanding its Planning and Environment Team with the recruitment of two new members: Tracy Lovejoy as a Senior Associate, based in the Birmingham office and Victoria Tague as an Associate in Manchester.

The appointments take the specialist Planning and Environment (P&E) team to nine. P&E sits within Irwin Mitchell’s Property Division which numbers 27 partners and 146 qualified lawyers.

Tracy Lovejoy (pictured right) is joining Irwin Mitchell’s Birmingham office as a senior associate from Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors in Shropshire, where she has worked since April 2019 and was an Associate Lawyer (Planning) and Head of the Planning Department.

Tracy has considerable experience on all aspects of planning and environmental law including advising on the section 106 agreements and CIL liabilities for a 600-unit residential development; advising on remediation conditions in respect of a former quarry site and advising a major poultry farm on their planning application, including managing the output of nutrients and emissions into Special Areas of Conservation and drafting the section 106 agreement to support the application.

She has experience of enforcement, injunctions, CPOs, judicial reviews and has advised on various areas including town and village greens, commons land, tree preservation orders, local plan policies, heritage assets, drainage, and ecological matters.

She has a strong reputation- according to Legal 500: “Tracy Lovejoy is a very diligent, client-focused professional who works hard to deliver the best result for her clients.’ Prior to working at Lanyon Bowdler, Tracy was a Planning and Governance Lawyer for Bromsgrove District Council and Redditch Borough Council.

Victoria Tague (pictured left) has joined Irwin Mitchell’s Manchester office as an Associate from DLA Piper UK, where she was an Associate in the Manchester Planning team.

Victoria has acted for a wide range of clients in respect of both development proposals and real estate and corporate transactions and has assisted with high profile planning matters. She also has worked on complex legal agreements, including section 106 planning obligations, highways agreements and utility arrangements: compulsory purchase orders, compensations disputes, land transfers and planning due diligence.

Prior to joining DLA Piper, Victoria worked at Brabners in Manchester.

Claire Petricca-Riding, Head of Planning and Environment at Irwin Mitchell said, “Both Planning and Environment are fast-moving disciplines where our clients need up to date and strategic legal advice to keep ahead of the game. Our team works as a national practice, advising clients all over the UK. We are delighted to have re-enforced our presence in the North and Midlands with these two new appointments.

Both Tracy and Victoria will play an important part in helping us to fulfil our ambition to provide first-class advice to clients. Both new joiners come with great hands-on experience and good reputations and will be great assets to our practice. We plan to announce further appointments in the new year.”