Helen Cowan

Helen is a highly experienced commercial property lawyer who has been providing tailored commercial property advice since she qualified as a solicitor in 2008. She joins Harper James from DAC Beachcroft LLP.

I always try to ensure that my advice to clients is commercially pragmatic. A large part of the service a lawyer should provide to their client is determining the level and detail of advice that they require, so that the advice can be specifically tailored in order to add maximum value. I enjoy getting to know a client and their business in order to understand their requirements and work collaboratively with them, so as to deliver exactly what they need.

Helen has advised on a diverse range of complex commercial property issues in both the public and private sectors. Her clients have spanned various SMEs and large corporate organisations operating in the transport, retail, telecommunications and office sectors to local authorities, large Central Government bodies and numerous NHS Trusts. 

Helen’s experience includes acting as the Account Manager for a number of NHS Trusts and a large Central Government body during EU exit transition arrangements.

As well as having worked at large international law firms, she has also previously worked in-house for a large telecommunications company where she advised on all their real estate issues, from heads of terms stage through to instructing external solicitors, negotiation and completion. Her in-house experience has given her a good understanding of both the internal and commercial challenges facing businesses.

Examples of recent transactions:

• Advising SMEs in relation to leasehold office acquisitions and disposals;
• Advising a private care home provider in relation to acquisitions, disposals and general asset management of their portfolio;
• Dealing with leasehold and freehold acquisitions on behalf of a Secretary of State in relation to the EU Exit transition;
• Advising an NHS Trust on the exercise of an option agreement for the conditional purchase of  a development site and the negotiation of a conditional purchase and onward multi-million pound disposal of land to a joint venture company to create a health campus, leading on to further disposal of parts of the site by way of complex conditional agreements for lease to retailers and leasing arrangements to health service providers;
• Advising an NHS Trust in relation to the multi-million pound conditional disposal of various parcels of surplus land to residential and commercial developers;

Helen lives in Bristol with her husband and two young children. She has a keen interest in general health and nutrition and loves to spend time outdoors, travel, and catch up with friends.