Benjamin Willis
Senior Associate Corporate & Finance
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Overview
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Experience
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Credentials
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Insights and events
Client testimonial, Legal 500 UK 2024Ben Willis deserves special mention – he is 100% on-the-ball, efficient, focused and a delight to work with.
Ben Willis is a key member of Hogan Lovells' leading Real Estate Disputes practice, and is a named individual for Property Litigation in Legal 500. He provides strategic, focused advice to the full spectrum of property stakeholders including landlords, tenants, developers and investors.
Ben advises clients on a wide range of contentious real estate matters, with particular experience in construction, development and insolvency disputes. He has significant experience of complex, high-value litigation, ranging from multi-party property fraud proceedings to landlord challenges to Company Voluntary Arrangements and Restructuring Plans.
Ben has written for multiple publications including Estates Gazette, the RICS Property Journal and LexisNexis, as well as being a regular contributor to our Engage legal insight and analysis platform. He is also part of the firm’s Global Real Estate ESG committee.
Client testimonial, Legal 500 UK 2024Ben Willis deserves special mention – he is 100% on-the-ball, efficient, focused and a delight to work with.
Representative experience
Acting for an institutional landlord of a flagship store on Oxford Street in successful High Court proceedings against a former tenant's guarantor to recover in excess of £5m of unpaid rent.
Successfully appealing to the Court of Appeal on a point of EU sanctions law enabling a sovereign wealth fund to enforce a €12.5m loan through bankruptcy proceedings.
Securing permission in the High Court for an institutional landlord against the administrators of a nationwide retail chain to forfeit the leases of five retail park units.
Obtaining vacant possession of an £80m development site through contested opposed lease renewal proceedings (involving multiple proceedings against multiple tenants).
Obtaining forfeiture of a 125 year lease of a key anchor department store for failure to trade unless liquidators completed a sale within 3 months.
Advising a number of NCP's landlords in their successful, and ground-breaking, opposition to NCP's restructuring plan, which ultimately resulted in the withdrawal of NCP's plan.
Advising multiple landlords in high-profile CVA challenges, including the New Look CVA, which resulted in long overdue guidance on a number of contentious issues including "vote swamping" in CVAs.
Credentials
- L.P.C., BPP University Law School, Distinction, 2012
- B.A. (Jurisprudence), Oxford University, 2011
- Property Litigation Association