Jacqueline Cook

About

Jacqueline acts for a wide range of clients on contentious and non-contentious planning law matters. She has experience in all UK jurisdictions and routinely advises on consenting strategy, statutory and commercial contracts, appeals and judicial review.

Her work includes energy infrastructure, residential and commercial development, landmark retail, leisure and mixed-use developments and specialist aspects of planning, such as heritage assets and environmental impact assessment.

Jacqueline is ranked in Chambers and the Legal 500 directories. She is Vice-Chair of the Scottish Property Federation’s Planning & Development Committee (part of the British Property Federation) and regularly contributes to “Scottish Planning & Environmental Law” (the planning law journal of record in Scotland).

Experience

• Commercial Developer: Advising on a £200 million regeneration project to deliver 29,000 sqm mixed-use space and public realm in a city-centre UNESCO World Heritage Site, on a net zero basis.
• Housing Developer: Pursuing a widely-cited case against the Scottish Ministers’ interpretation of planning policy, in one of only four planning wins in Scotland’s highest appeal court since 2021.
• Care Home Operator: Acting on the due diligence, planning regularisation, sale and part-buyback of a portfolio of 26 full-service, elderly care homes.
• Wind Farm Developer: Advising on the sale of a consented onshore wind project in the Highlands with a development value of £100 million, involving parties in five different countries.
• Leisure, Sport and Tourism Developer: Consenting strategy, contract negotiations and support for equity/inward funding on a mixed-use scheme to repurpose a disused quarry as Scotland’s first artificial, inland surfing lagoon.

Credentials

• Admitted as a solicitor: England & Wales (2006), Scotland (2009)
• Accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a Planning Law Specialist (2023)