Laura Conduit

Partner

Laura is a specialist residential property solicitor, dealing with sale, purchase and mortgage transactions. Laura deals with all types of residential property, whether freehold or leasehold, town or country but she has a great deal of experience in the prime central London market. Laura particularly enjoys a fast paced deal and has an excellent track record for delivering quality advice and exchanging transactions under pressure.

Laura predominately focusses on buying and selling both leasehold and freehold residential property for her clients, with values ranging from £25,000 to £30m+. Her broad client base includes numerous UK and overseas based individuals and she is happy to guide those less experienced with the UK residential conveyancing process. She regularly acts for trusts and companies, whether UK or offshore structures.

Together with our corporate team, Laura has acted for numerous clients in relation to the sale and purchase of companies holding property assets (SPVs).

She is regularly instructed on lease extensions, licences for alterations and negotiating other documents such as tenancy agreements and assured shorthold tenancies.

Laura also has experience in acquisitions and disposals of development sites and acts for private banks and alternative lenders on a range of property finance matters, including development finance. She is experienced in acting on insolvency transactions acting for receivers and lenders on the disposal of distressed properties.

Laura enjoys coordinating the whole transaction, working with buying and selling agents, valuers, surveyors, lenders and others. She delivers an efficient and friendly service, working within the tight timeframes that transactions of this nature often demand.

Laura qualified as a solicitor in 2008.

Expertise

Individuals & Families

Laura's work for individual clients and family offices covers investment properties as well as main homes and pied a terres. Her work for these clients has recently included acting for a first time buyer in relation to the purchase of a freehold house in Kensington for £8m with a 7 working day exchange, acting for a family relocating to the south west coast of England on a £1.5m 10 working day purchase and coordinating the purchase of an SPV owning a property in One Hyde Park and carrying out all property due diligence for the acquisition and dealing with the subsequent licence for alterations. Her fastest transaction was carried out in a matter of hours from instruction to exchange!

Property Businesses

Laura frequently acts for property developers investing in both residential and commercial property. She has experience in acting for a developer in relation to the off plan and as built sales of leasehold apartments in a prime central London high end, luxury boutique development, with a total GDV of £40m+. She recently acted for another developer client on the purchases of two unconnected freehold properties with development potential for £1m each, coordinating exchange on both within 5 working days of instruction.

Private Banks

Laura is regularly instructed by lenders to act as separate representation for financing and refinancing residential property, for example, acting as separate representation for several private banks on the financing of properties with mortgage loans from £500k upwards; acting for an alternative lender in relation to an £11m loan secured against a national buy to let portfolio of freehold, leasehold and mixed-use properties; dealing with the sale by receivers of a freehold listed building in north London that had been subject to extensive refurbishment for £15m.

Memberships & Accolades

Laura is listed as a Top flight property lawyer in the Spear's 500 Magazine 2021 edition.

She has also achieved top tier rankings in the Spears Property Advisers Index 2020. She is recognised as outstanding in the field of Residential Property.

“Laura Conduit enters our Index thanks to high praise from peers and agents alike, who credit her specialist practice covering all aspects of residential property matters.” Spears Property Law Index 2020

Laura is a regular contributor to the Financial Times' Property Law column.

She is Vice President of the Real Estate Commission of the Union International des Avocats (UIA) which gives her a useful international network of lawyers.

Testimonials

Laura is ranked Band 1 for Real Estate: High Value Residential in the Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2021.

"She is one of the best property lawyers I deal with. She is whip-smart, efficient and very tenacious. She has given exemplary service to the clients I have referred to her." (Chambers High Net Worth 2021)

"She is absolutely fantastic to work with, and very pragmatic when dealing with complex high-value transactions. She looks for a way to make things work." (Chambers High Net Worth 2021)

"She is a real standout and she leaves an impression. She does transactions super quickly and has a real can-do attitude." (Chambers High Net Worth 2020)

"Laura is excellent and you can tell that she is super intelligent. She sees an issue coming three steps away and she has the solution before anyone has the problem." (Chambers High Net Worth 2020)

"Laura is absolutely superb. She is very proactive, very hardworking and she can turn things around very quickly. She's also great fun. She's just very, very efficient and very good and gets the job done." (Chambers High Net Worth 2019)

“She expertly guides people on tricky transactions, and what initially looks complicated, she streamlines.” (Chambers High Net Worth 2019)

"Thank you so much for all your help here! You’re amazing - I don’t know how you did it!” (Client)

Laura is listed as a Next Generation Partner in Legal 500 2022.

"Laura Conduit has gained a reputation for working on some of the the most complex and fast-paced transactions." (Legal 500 2021)

"Laura Conduit has been instrumental in our day-to-day legal care/workload. She is always on hand and is very much a problem solver rather than simply a problem finder." (Legal 500 2022)

"Laura Conduit is a pleasant individual that I enjoy working with and I find her attention to detail of particular merit. She is easy to deal with and I believe provides clients with the confidence required to complete high value property transactions." (Legal 500 2021)

"...Laura Conduit and others all go well above and beyond and are clearly a very tight team who all support each other closely. It is an absolute pleasure to work with them." (Legal 500 2020)