About
Emma leads the Rural Property team at Burges Salmon, specialising in rural and agricultural property transactional work for a wide range of individuals, institutional and corporate clients. She is recognised as a Leading Partner within the Agriculture and Estates rankings by Legal 500 2025, and is also ranked in Chambers 2025.
She joined the firm in October 2007 having first trained and qualified in London, where early in her career she gained extensive experience in high-value residential property transactions both urban and rural.
Emma handles sales, purchases, lettings and lending instructions, with expertise in agricultural tenancy matters under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 and the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. She advises on complex restructuring matters, including the surrender and re-grant of tenancies to facilitate strategic land use projects, and provides guidance across the full range of issues that arise when managing farms and estates.
She held the position of Independent Governor at Harper Adams University from 2016 – 2024, and is a member of the Agricultural Law Association.
Experience
- Purchase of rural land: Advising on the acquisition of a 2,500 acre multi-let estate for c.£20 million.
- Sale of rural land: Advising on the sale of a 4,700 acre largely agricultural, estate for c.£50 million.
- Tenancy restructures: Advising on a complex surrender and re-grant arrangement under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 enabling the tenant to continue with their business on the holding whilst parts of it were the subject to development.
- Managing and disposing of residential portfolios: Advising on the sale of a portfolio of 50 rural cottages subject to protected tenancies to an investor purchaser with negotiation of complex provisions to ensure future protection of tenants’ rights.
- Infrastructure projects: Leading on the provision of real estate advice in relation to the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme, involving a significant number of landowners and occupiers from whom rights of access and occupation need to be secured.
Credentials
- Admitted as a solicitor: England and Wales (2003)