Matthew Smith

Biography

Matthew is a solicitor in the Commercial & Dispute Resolution team, with experience in all types of commercial and residential property disputes. Matthew joined Stephensons in 2017. He was the first in the firm to qualify through the solicitor apprenticeship route. He is supervised by Joanne Ellis.

His broad experience leaves him well equipped to assist with a wide range of property issues, but his specialisms include:

• Adverse possession
• Property ownership disputes
• Easements
• Restrictive covenants
• Property misrepresentation claims
• Boundary disputes

His clients include homeowners, large commercial clients, social landlords, and tenants. Matthew’s experience of acting for various types of clients, on both sides of disputes, has provided him with invaluable insight which enables him to provide clients with practical advice.

Matthew’s approach to all litigation, whether acting for a commercial client or an individual, is to achieve the best solution for the client as quickly as possible, exploring all possibilities, including alternative dispute resolution.

Recent cases

Matthew assisted Joanne Ellis on the landmark Court of Appeal case of White v Alder and another. This concerned the enforceability of boundary agreements on successors in title.

Matthew recently recovered £90,000 in damages and £12,000 in costs for a petrol station owner when a car crashed into the petrol station, causing substantial damage.

Acting for a property development company, Matthew assisted the client with settling a dispute concerning the payment of stamp duty land tax exceeding £280,000.