BDB Pitmans boosts private client team with key senior lateral hire

This is a key hire for BDB Pitmans as the newly merged firm continues to build its private wealth offering both domestically and internationally.  Tristan will be based in the firm’s London office and work closely with BDB Pitmans’ teams in Cambridge, Reading and Southampton to advise clients nationally in his specialisms of landed estates, agriculture and rural business and of high value residential property.

Tristan will lead BDB Pitmans’ Agriculture and Rural Property Team, providing comprehensive advice to individuals, trustees and institutional landowners, based domestically and internationally, on all matters relating to landed estates agricultural property and rural business activities.  He will join Legal Director Paddy Lynam and will be supported by BDB Pitmans’ wider Private Wealth Department which offers a range of services from wealth structuring to international estate planning and comprises 8 partners and 37 fee earners in total.     In addition Tristan will also continue to advise clients on urban residential property matters, in London and elsewhere.

Tristan has a wealth of expertise advising on all aspects of residential and rural property related matters, built over a 20 year career – including the acquisition and disposal of some of the largest UK estates, landlord and tenant issues and shooting and sporting rights.   In 2018 he acted on both what were probably London’s highest value residential purchase and England’s highest value residential estate purchase.  As a farmer’s son and partner in his family farming and property businesses, Tristan has extensive practical knowledge in the management of rural property and farming matters.  

Alongside his practice, Tristan is a member of the Agricultural Law Association, the National Farmer’s Union, the Country Landowners and Business Association and the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association.  One of the principal legal directories, Chambers and Partners 2019, describes Tristan’s technical knowledge on property as “almost superhuman” while the other leading directory,  Legal 500, has described him as “'extremely calm, knowledgeable and practical."   He was one of three nominees for “Residential Property Lawyer of the Year” in Chambers’ inaugural High Net Worth Awards.

Tristan Ward says of his appointment: “BDB Pitmans offers a long standing leading reputation in private wealth across a broader geographical reach, with an increasing focus on international clients. This gives me a strong platform from which to help develop the firm’s high value residential and rural estates and agricultural offerings. I look forward to working with my new colleagues across the firm and to helping clients unlock a multitude of opportunities to grow and develop their estates and complex rural projects, and I am very excited by the opportunities ahead.”

Andrew Smith, Managing Partner of BDB Pitmans, comments: “I am delighted that Tristan will be joining BDB Pitmans as we continue to grow our private wealth offering. His considerable experience will be invaluable in helping our already well established residential property and agriculture and rural property teams grow further. Tristan joins at an exciting time for BDB Pitmans as we continue to recruit post merger, our aim being to continue to attract the best talent in our key areas of business and we look forward to announcing further investment in the near future.”