Forty-five years of continuous practice on the Mount Ephraim ridge above the town. The firm opened in April 1981 as IB Leslie & Co, became IB Leslie, Cooper & Burnett, and trades today as CooperBurnett LLP under four LLP Designated Members, fifteen partners and 22 SRA-regulated solicitors across 18 legal departments.
A full-service Kent law firm with the staffing of a regional practice and the supervision of a high-street one. Corporate and commercial and the two property desks are the spine; disputes and contentious probate run alongside them. Each one is taken by the same supervising partner from first call to engagement letter.
Mergers and acquisitions, business sales and purchases, shareholder and partnership agreements, corporate finance, commercial contracts, intellectual property and licensing. Headed by Victoria Sampson (Designated Member, co-lead) with Russell Brinkhurst (Partner), Katie Hilsdon (Senior Associate), Natalie Lai and Molly Mackay (Associate Solicitors). Fixed-fee scoping available on defined transactions.
Commercial freehold and leasehold acquisitions, development funding and joint ventures, landlord-and-tenant advice, planning consents, leasehold enfranchisement under the 1967 and 1993 Acts. Co-supervised by Tom Lumsden and Jonathan Rowe (both Designated Members) with Oliver Bussell (Partner, Planning) and Hilary Palmer (Senior Associate). Enfranchisement is the rare line; see below.
Sales, purchases, transfers of equity, re-mortgages and shared-ownership work across Tunbridge Wells, the Kent Weald and into East Sussex. Conveyancing Quality Scheme accredited by the Law Society. Headed by Jennifer Irving, on the team since July 1986; partner team of Lisa Connolly, Glen Webb and Anna Dunn. Ayla Clissold supports as Associate Solicitor.
Commercial and property disputes, contentious probate and trusts, debt recovery and insolvency, employment claims. Supervised by Joseph Oates (Designated Member, also Insolvency), John Spence (Partner) and David Brown (Partner, also Construction). Courtney Magnus leads Contentious Wills, Probate and Trusts as an Associate Solicitor.
The firm was founded in April 1981 as IB Leslie & Co. The first employee, Paula Armstrong, joined in June 1981 and remembers when the firm became IB Leslie, Cooper & Burnett shortly after she arrived. The 1980s and 1990s built the practice that exists today: Jennifer Irving joined the residential-property desk on 21 July 1986; Victoria Sampson joined corporate on 23 April 1996.
In December 2013 the partnership converted to CooperBurnett LLP, registered at Companies House under OC390024. In April 2014 the Solicitors Regulation Authority authorised the LLP as a recognised body under SRA number 611837. In 2018 Joseph Oates and Victoria Sampson took over as co-leads. Through it all the address has not moved.
On 22 April 2026 the firm marked its sapphire anniversary with a lunch at The Royal Wells Hotel. Six of the longest-servers attended, including Paula Armstrong from 1981, Jennifer Irving from 1986 and Hazel Thompson from 1987. Tom Lumsden's line for the day: "the year Charles and Diana got married and Trivial Pursuit was launched."
"When I first joined the firm, it was known as IB Leslie & Co and, shortly afterwards, became IB Leslie, Cooper & Burnett." Paula Armstrong, the firm's first employee, June 1981
CooperBurnett LLP is run by four LLP Designated Members, each holding direct responsibility for a department or pair of departments. The continuity claim ("the named partner on your engagement letter is the named partner on the completion call") is staffed for, not advertised.
Heads Dispute Resolution, Employment and Insolvency. Co-leads the firm with Victoria Sampson since 2018. Commercial and property disputes, contentious probate, employment claims, insolvency work supervised by a single named partner on every file.
Head of Corporate and Commercial. Co-leads the firm with Joseph Oates since 2018. Mergers and acquisitions, shareholder and partnership agreements, corporate finance, commercial contracts. Thirty years on the same corporate desk.
Heads Commercial Property and Development, and Leasehold Enfranchisement under the 1967 and 1993 Acts. The reason the firm advertises enfranchisement as a discrete practice area rather than referring it to specialist London chambers.
Commercial Property and Development, Residential Property. The bridge between the two property desks: development deals that land with a residential tail and residential matters that turn commercial.
Two of the four LLP Designated Members on the commercial-property desk, Tom Lumsden and Jonathan Rowe, advertise leasehold enfranchisement as a discrete practice area, alongside Oliver Bussell (Partner, Planning). Most Tunbridge Wells high-street firms refer this work out to specialist London chambers. We keep it on the same corridor as the rest of the property practice, and we have done so since Tom joined the masthead in 2016.
We act for individual flat-owners on collective enfranchisement and lease-extension claims under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, and for freeholders defending those claims. Working both sides over a decade has trained the desk to pressure-test the marriage-value and freehold-vacant-possession arithmetic before it reaches the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). We also advise on lease-extension claims for houses under the older Leasehold Reform Act 1967 regime, where the qualification rules differ and the valuation runs on a different footing.
The office at 14-16 Mount Ephraim Road is itself a Victorian villa that, in another postcode, would have been a long-since leasehold-flat conversion. It has stayed a single occupancy because of how the firm has staffed it: a building intended for one household and used by one professional firm.
A short enquiry form for an initial response by telephone or email. Once we understand the matter we can quote a fixed fee where the work supports it, or hourly with an estimated total where it does not. We say so in writing either way and we never start chargeable work without an engagement letter on file.
Napier House sits on the Mount Ephraim ridge above central Tunbridge Wells, on a road of professional offices. Five minutes on foot from Tunbridge Wells railway station (Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Hastings). On-site parking is offered, which is unusual on the Mount Ephraim side of the town centre.
Napier House
14-16 Mount Ephraim Road
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
TN1 1EE
Since April 1981. The firm opened on Mount Ephraim Road as IB Leslie & Co, renamed shortly afterwards to IB Leslie, Cooper & Burnett, and trades today as CooperBurnett LLP. The forty-fifth anniversary was marked at The Royal Wells Hotel on 22 April 2026, with the firm's first employee (Paula Armstrong, June 1981) and three forty-year servers in the room. Same town, same road, same continuity through three Prime Ministers, the introduction of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the conversion to a limited liability partnership in 2013.
Yes. It is the firm's house style and the reason the firm is staffed the way it is. Jennifer Irving has been Head of Residential Property since 1986; Victoria Sampson has been on the corporate desk since 1996. Three members of the support team (Debbie Charman, Lorraine Constable, Alison Wood) have each clocked over forty years. The named partner on your engagement letter is the named partner on the completion call.
Yes. Both Designated Members on the commercial-property desk (Tom Lumsden and Jonathan Rowe) advertise enfranchisement as a discrete practice area, alongside Oliver Bussell (Partner, Planning). Most Tunbridge Wells high-street firms refer this out to specialist London chambers; we keep it on Mount Ephraim Road. We advise individual flat-owners on collective enfranchisement and lease-extension claims under the 1993 Act, and freeholders defending those claims. We have run the marriage-value and freehold-vacant-possession arithmetic from both sides of the table.
Yes. CooperBurnett LLP is a recognised body under SRA number 611837, authorised on 1 April 2014. The firm has 22 SRA-regulated solicitors on staff and 15 partners across 18 legal departments. CooperBurnett LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC390024, registered office at the Tunbridge Wells address.
Napier House is a Victorian villa on the Mount Ephraim ridge above the town centre, five minutes on foot from Tunbridge Wells railway station (frequent service to London Charing Cross, London Cannon Street and Hastings). On-site parking is offered at the office, which is rare in central Tunbridge Wells. The Royal Wells Hotel where the sapphire-anniversary lunch was held is on the same ridge, two minutes further north.