About
Maddie is an experienced agricultural and rural dispute resolution specialist. Her practice has a specific focus on the farming sector within which she acts for a wide range of clients including landed estates, trustees, partnerships, private individuals, and corporate, statutory and Crown bodies.
Due to the diverse needs of her rural and agricultural clients, particularly traditional and modern landed estates, Maddie undertakes a wide variety of agricultural legal work, including both the conduct and resolution of active disputes, and advisory work to help mitigate the risk of future dispute.
Maddie's contentious practice regularly comprises of cases involving proprietary estoppel, farming partnership and quasi-partnership disputes, equine impoundment and straying livestock, prescriptive easements, and contentious family trust disputes. She has significant experience of landlord and tenant issues, particularly those related to Agricultural Holdings Act tenancies. Her AHA expertise includes succession applications (on retirement and death), interpretation of access rights, strategic planning in advance of prospective developments, regaining possession for development (including arbitration following notice to quit) and breach management and enforcement.
Maddie joined Charles Russell Speechlys in 2025.
Experience
Reported cases (at Maddie's previous firm) include:
- Rees v Earl of Plymouth [2020] EWCA Civ 816, a major case relating to interpretation of an AHA landlord's rights of entry to conduct surveys, for the successful landowner.
- For the same successful landowner in Earl of Plymouth v Rees [2021] EWHC 3180 (Ch), which provides a useful summary of the applicable principles of proprietary estoppel and its limits as a cause of action.
Maddie also has experience of:
- Acting for clients (both public sector and private clients) to review tenancy arrangements, identify areas of risk, and advise on strategies for managing or mitigating any risks identified.
- Working closely with clients (and, if applicable, their internal or external PR specialists) to assist with clear, accurate tenant or external communication about the implementation of any changes.
- Advising private sector and public body landlords on tenancy successions on death or retirement. Advising tenant farming families to maximise chances of a successful succession application.
Publications
- Maddie is the Consultant Editor of the 2023 reissue of the “Agricultural Production and Marketing” chapter of Halsbury’s Laws of England.
