Rachel Duncan
Partner, Real Estate
Rachel is a Partner in our Real Estate Team and has over 20 years’ experience in all aspects of high value commercial property work, having practised since 2002. In particular she specialises in all aspects of Landlord and Tenant commercial transactions alongside corporate-support property work, the acquisition, letting and disposal of investment properties and Collective Enfranchisement.
Joining Herrington Carmichael LLP in September 2021, Rachel has previously acted for a wide range of national and international companies across all sectors dealing with all types of commercial property from huge pre-let industrial warehouses (she acted for tenant on the largest industrial letting in the UK of 2019) to offices and retail. She is experienced in advising foreign businesses setting up in the UK and has been particularly successful in helping clients that have historically used City-based law firms achieve better value for money.
Rachel works closely with surveyors and in-house legal and property teams in managing portfolios of properties for large corporate clients. Her experience is wide-ranging with many of her clients requiring active management of their extensive portfolios, often to tight deadlines. She is equally happy to advise either landlords or tenants on individual bespoke lettings for smaller companies and individuals.
Since 2021 Rachel has been part of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Editorial Advisory Group, advising on all commercial property legal aspects of the articles which are published by the RICS Property Journal.
In her spare time Rachel is a qualified mountaineer and also enjoys gardening, travelling, DIY and kicking a football around with her two sons and cockapoo.
Rachel Duncan is a key name within the Real Estate group at Herrington Carmichael LLP, exhibiting vast knowledge of the leasing of investment properties
Legal 500
Recent Experience
- Heading up a team of lawyers working on a new pre-let Agreement for a major US retail company taking over 1.1 million square feet (with annual rent of over £7 million pa for 15-year term)
- Heading up a team acting for a global car rental brand in relation to their UK portfolio (as tenant) in England and Wales, with 60-100 individual transactions per year
- Acting for a national waste management company on their entire property portfolio – including a wide range of high value and ‘unusual’ transactions, from quarry and mineral leases, electric vehicle charging hubs and adverse possession claims to £ multi-million hydrogen production and waste disposal sites
- Acting on an industrial letting in Uxbridge valued at over £20m, with highly complex ‘Agreement for Lease’ and Lease provisions, alongside a Pre-Emption Agreement, collateral warranties and various other documents
- Acting for outdoor power equipment manufacturer in sale of HQ industrial premises for £13.5m
- Acting on a purchase of a large tranche of land at Colnbrook near Heathrow Airport (value £9m+ and including 7 separate freehold titles) by way of an Option
- Acting for UK focused logistics real estate investment, development and asset management client (as Landlord) in respect of an office letting in Farnborough, valued at £3m and involving 9 separate legal documents
- Acting for a group of 112 tenant flat-owners within a development in Whitechapel, London, in their successful purchase of the freehold of their block of 115 flats under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 ‘Right of First Refusal’ statutory process and the granting of subsequent 999-year lease extensions for all 112 participating tenants
- Acting for a group of 18 residential tenants in acquiring the freeholds to five separate blocks of flats in High Wycombe via the LTA 1987 Right of First Refusal process
- Acting for a group of 12 residential tenants in collectively enfranchising the freehold of their two buildings in Barnet, London, pursuant to the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993
- Acting for a couple in Essex in exercising their collective enfranchisement rights over a block of four maisonettes in Braintree
- Acting for various block management clients (freehold owners of large blocks of flats) in their day-to-day legal matters including dealing with voluntary and statutory residential lease extensions
“Equally excellent attention and prompt response to small matters as well as major ones”
Client, Chambers Unpublished
“She has always been extremely knowledgeable and professional, providing fantastic support and skill across all property transactions”
Client, Chambers Unpublished
“I am delighted with the level of service and advice I got from Rachel. I felt in a safe pair of hands which took the stress out of negotiating the lease with our new landlord. It allowed me to focus on the fit out of our larger office.”
Client
Best Law Firms 2024
Herrington Carmichael has once again been named in the Times Best Law Firms. We were first listed in 2023 and have once again made the Best Law Firms list for 2024.
