Melvyn Orton

Finers Stephens Innocent LLP, London, ENGLAND

He studied law at University College London. He trained with the firm of Thornton Lynne & Lawson and became a partner soon after qualification in 1971. He remained with the firm and negotiated its merger with Finers Stephens Innocent in 1991. From 1997 - 2000 he was Head of Property at FSI, and after a period during which he stepped down to accommodate his demanding professional work, he has been re-appointed as Head of Property.

He acts for publicly quoted companies, the property subsidiaries of large commercial organisations and private property companies. He deals with the purchase/sale of substantial investment portfolios, the sale of properties subject to planning and the structuring of transactions which allow landowners to increase value in development and urban regeneration projects. He also deals in a wide range of landlord and tenant transactions involving office, leisure, industrial and retail properties. His clients include; Associated British Ports (for whom he acted recently on the sale of a large site on Millbay Docks, Plymouth to The South West of England Regional Development Authority (SWERDA)), Trenport Investments Limited (including a substantial planning inquiry and disposal to a major house-builder of a large residential development site), Littlewoods Limited and The Tannen Group Limited.

Melvyn is fluent in French and maintains strong professional links in France through the Firm's French Group and has acted on a number of transactions involving both French and Swiss companies. As the UK's real estate representative for MERITAS - the global affiliation of law firms - he continues to cultivate strong links with continental and US property lawyers and is firmly committed to the delivery of clients' commercial objectives.