Five new partners have been appointed by Bristol-headquartered national law firm Burges Salmon as it strengthens its real estate, planning, dispute resolution, projects and corporate teams.
The firm said the promotions, which take effect from 1 May, emphasised its ambitious strategy for growth across a number of its key areas and reinforced its continued drive to deliver exceptional service to its clients. 
The five are Claire MacLean in real estate, Alex Minhinick in planning and compulsory purchase, Charlotte Whitaker in dispute resolution, Alec Whiter in projects and Alex Lloyd in corporate.
Claire MacLean, one of the original members of Burges Salmon’s Edinburgh team when it launched in 2019, has more than 16 years’ experience delivering real estate legal services.
She has a particular emphasis on projects within the energy sector, acting for developers, investors and funders and in the built environment sector specialising in cross-border portfolio transactions, hotels, industrial & logistics and offices.
She works closely with the firm’s planning, construction, projects and banking teams.
Alex Minhinick trained and qualified with Burges Salmon in 2010. Acting on a wide range of projects for developers, landowners and local authority clients, he has particular experience in compulsory purchase compensation claims, energy, power and utilities projects, infrastructure projects, and developments relating to mines and minerals.
Alex is a Legal Associate of the Royal Town Planning Institute, a member of the Compulsory Purchase Association, and a representative for Burges Salmon at the Mineral Products Association.
Charlotte Whitaker acts on largescale health and safety investigations, inquests and public inquiries, with particular expertise in advising clients at the incident response phase to multi-fatality incidents and has extensive experience in acting for clients in sensitive and high-profile criminal investigations, prosecutions and inquests.
She is currently leading on two multi-fatality health and safety investigations and is a lead solicitor appointed to advise the UK’s Covid-19 public inquiry chaired by Baroness Hallett. She advises across a range of sectors with a particular specialism in transport and energy.
Alec Whiter trained and qualified with Burges Salmon in 2013. A member of the firm’s energy projects team, he has wide-ranging experience of advising developers, investors, government, funders, licensed suppliers, major energy users and contractors on all aspects of projects, regulation, commercial agreements and project finance transactions in the net zero, energy and waste sectors.
Alex Lloyd works across all areas of corporate finance, acting for national and international, private and public companies and institutional investors.
He is focused on technology transactions, working on both high profile and international mergers and acquisitions while also being exposed to new businesses and technologies through his work on venture and growth capital deals.
He is a member of the firm’s technology transactions and private equity practice groups and is co-lead on its BScale initiative aimed at high-growth businesses, their investors and the wider start-up and scale-up ecosystem.
Burges Salmon managing partner Roger Bull said: “We have an incredibly talented team of lawyers and business service professionals at Burges Salmon and these promotions reflect our ongoing growth and investment, in key sectors and practices including real estate, planning, dispute resolution, renewable energy & net zero, and corporate finance & technology.
“With strong technical and leadership skills, they will play an important role in ensuring we continue to provide exceptional client service and in supporting the ongoing success of the firm in the years to come.”
Burges Salmon employs around 1,000 people in its Bristol HQ and London and Edinburgh offices.
