Janet Bignell QC

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Janet Bignell QC advises and acts in contentious disputes across the range of landlord and tenant and real property law. She has acted in arbitrations as arbitrator, independent expert, legal assessor and advocate (oral and written) throughout her career.

Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ Presidential Property Dispute Service.

ADR Group Accredited Civil & Commercial Mediator. 

• Qualifications

  • MA (Cantab) 1990, BCL (Oxon), 1991.
  • Call to the Bar, 1992.
  • Appointed as a Recorder in 2009 - Crown Court and Chancery. 
  • I was invited to become a member of Arbrix in 2013.
  • I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
  • ADR Group Accredited Civil & Commercial Mediator

• Professional Awards

  • Chambers Bar Awards 2013, Real Estate Junior of the Year.  (Short listed, 2008 and 2011).
  • Listed in the Chambers 100: UK Bar, a ranking of the UK’s top 100 junior barristers. 

• Publications

  I am the author of the 7th (2007) and 8th (2013) editions of Lewison's Drafting Business Leases.

  I am the co-author (with Charles Harpum) of Registered Land: Law and Practice under the Land Registration Act 2002 (2004) and Registered Land The New Law: A Guide to the Land Registration Act 2002 (2002).

  I have been a member of the Editorial Board of the Landlord and Tenant Review since 1999.

  I was formerly the executive editor of the Landlord & Tenant section of “The Lawyers Factbook”; a contributor to Fisher & Lightwood's Law of Mortgage and a contributor to the Auctioneers, Estate Agents and Valuers section of the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents.

  I have published articles on topical issues in The Landlord & Tenant Review; New Law Journal; Estates Gazette, and The Conveyancer & Property Lawyer.

  I was a Blundell Memorial lecturer in 2007. 

  I often lecture or run workshops at professional conferences.  These have included the Property Litigation Association’s Conferences; the Property Bar Association Conference; the Chancery Bar Conference, and the RICS Dilapidations Forum.  I have spoken at numerous in-house sessions for both solicitors and surveyors. 

  I acted as counsel in the mock arbitration at Arbrix’s spring meeting 2013.

• Arbitration work – professional

  I have acted as arbitrator in arbitrations involving:

  • the interpretation of leases;
  • rent review disputes; and
  • a commercial service charge dispute involving a large shopping centre.

  I often act as legal assessor in contractual interpretation and rent review disputes.

  I frequently draft legal submissions to arbitrators in arbitrations across the range of landlord and tenant work, particularly rent reviews.

  I appeared as counsel in the following reported cases involving arbitration / independent experts:

  Leftbank Properties Ltd v Spirit Group Retail Ltd [2008] PLSCS 6 (QBD): I successfully opposed a landlord's application to set aside/remit the arbitrator's rent review award under s.68(2) Arbitration Act 1996.

  Monella and anor v Pizza Express (Restaurants) Ltd [2004] 1 EGLR 43, (Ch D): I successfully opposed an application under s.12 Arbitration Act 1996.

  Fox & Widley v Guram [1998] 1 EGLR 1998, (QB): I successfully opposed an application under s.12 Arbitration Act 1996.

  Morgan Sindall v Sawston Farms (Cambs) Ltd [1997] EGCS 118, (Ch D): appeared as junior counsel in a case concerning a challenge to an expert's non speaking valuation.

  Fordgate Bingley Ltd v Argyll Stores Ltd [1994] 2 EGLR 84, (Ch D): appeared as junior counsel in a case involving the legal interpretation of a lease to determine whether the third party appointee was to act as expert or arbitrator.