Helena Davies

Property litigation

Helena acts for institutional landlords, public sector asset owners, developers and private clients, as well as occupiers from across the retail, leisure and hospitality, industrial and office sectors, where she advises on the full spectrum of contentious real estate matters. 

Her recent case highlights include Anglo International Upholland Ltd v Wainwright & Persons Unknown [2023] 5 WLUK 613 in which our client secured an injunction against identified and unidentified ‘urban explorers’ to protect recurrent trespassing that was a threat to life. The decision extends the injunction (believed to be a judicial first) to drone use over the site and involved unusual methods of service, including QR code documents (rather than full packs of pleadings) being posted at the site, service online and service by the named defendant on the ‘persons unknown’ through social media posts. 

A member of the Property Litigation Association and named on the RIBA panel of specialist consultants, Helena finds both commercial and legal solutions for her clients and has extensive experience of resolving disputes through mediation as an alternative to litigation. 

She’s regularly published in professional journals — including Estates Gazette — and frequently writes and presents training sessions. She is recognised as a ‘Next Generation Partner’ by The Legal 500 for 2024, which describes her as “always compassionate yet to the point in her communications”, adding that she “builds relationships but also gets results. What is more, she reacts very quickly, takes issues seriously and wins challenging fights”.

Head of retail

Helena has led our retail sector team since 2021 and acts for many household names including DFS Group and Well Pharmacy (Bestway National Chemists Ltd). She speaks at retail conferences and her comments have been published in Business Live and This is Money.

Passionate about sustainability goals and retail’s position in local communities, Helena has spearheaded a series of thought leadership campaigns, created new networks, organised events and produced a vast amount of video footage and social media content to showcase best practice and success stories in this area. This has featured contributors from a number of retail industry leaders including The Trafford Centre and media commentators.

Helena works alongside other legal specialists and consultants from across the retail sector and provides legal services to address the vast array of ESG-related challenges including B Corp applications, environmental regulations, setting up corporate charity foundations, employee charters and defending greenwashing claims. She’s also forging ahead with a number of new initiatives around advertising standards, influencer relationships and the role of retail in placemaking.

Helena joined us in 2018 and is based in our Manchester office.