Alastair Lewis is a partner in our Real Estate, Planning and Parliamentary team. He joined Sharpe Pritchard in 1990.
We spent five minutes with Alastair to learn more about him and the work he does.
Alastair Lewis is a partner in our Real Estate, Planning and Parliamentary team. He joined Sharpe Pritchard in 1990.
We spent five minutes with Alastair to learn more about him and the work he does.
I am the head of the firm’s Parliamentary and Planning team and my client work is a mixture of major infrastructure planning, promoting and opposing legislation and public law advice. I have quite a wide-ranging client base, including local authorities, government departments, charities and major landowners. The infrastructure projects I work on are mainly in the energy and transport sectors.
There really isn’t a typical day for me – one of the great things about the work I do is the variety. As well as my client work, I hold a number of management roles in the firm which adds to that variety.
I worked on the Bill which became the Holocaust Memorial Act. The subject matter itself was important and interesting and the work raised questions about Parliamentary procedure which had not been aired for decades. The research required a fascinating deep dive into history.
Much of the work I do is specialised. I advise on the legal and practical aspects of development consent orders for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, draft and advise on legislation of all types, and advise on a range of public law matters often related to the legislation that I’ve promoted, for example on road traffic, highways, planning, open spaces, environmental law, compulsory purchase and licensing.
The recent push for simplifying and speeding up the planning process has resulted in an almost weekly output of planning legislation, policy and guidance which we’ve had to keep up with while doing the day job.
Possibly that it’s dry and dusty – it really isn’t!
I’m asked this question a lot, having been with the firm for over 35 years. It’s an easy answer – the people and the interesting and purposeful work we do.
Follow your instincts when it comes to the sort of work you want to do and the type of organisation you want to work for. And make sure you are ready to adapt to and work with new technology.
According to the results of a questionnaire I completed at school in the 1980s, I was most likely to become a cartographer. I wouldn’t have minded that because I’m fascinated by maps.
One of the numerous summer jobs I did when at school was chopping off carrot stalks.
I’ve just been reading a few William Faulkner novels. I really liked As I Lay Dying.
“…Thinking while cycling.”
