A foreign-qualified property and commercial lawyer, working in the UK from Kent.
Twenty years in property, land, planning and commercial practice — split between public-sector planning, my own boutique firm in Ukraine, and a current contract role with a UK strategic-land developer. Taran Legal is the independent UK consultancy on the side, for clients who want a single named lawyer end-to-end.
How the practice was built.
I hold a Master of Laws (LLM, 2006) and am currently preparing for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).
After qualification I spent nine years inside the Urban Planning & Land Affairs Division of Kharkiv City Council, a major Ukrainian city of roughly 1.4 million residents. The final twenty months I served as Head of Division, leading approximately seventeen legal staff across two divisions, setting strategy across the property, land and planning caseload, and approving municipal ordinances and planning-related contracts.
In 2016 I founded my own commercial practice, Taran Buro (Юридичне бюро «Таран»), based in Kharkiv. Over nine years the firm delivered more than three hundred real estate and construction matters and served more than forty retainer clients, with no known litigation arising from business contracts drafted by the firm over a tracked four-year period. Taran Buro is still in operation; I continue to direct it from the UK, with day-to-day work handled by a Ukrainian partner.
Since 2023 I have worked from the UK. Since July 2025 I have been engaged as a contract Land Promotion Manager at Montare LLP, a UK strategic-land and planning-led master developer in the South East — co-ordinating option, promotion and collaboration agreements, instructing external solicitors on registered-land work, and running the operational delivery layer across a live land-promotion portfolio of more than ten sites.
Taran Legal is the independent UK-side of that work: pragmatic commercial legal support for clients who want a single, named lawyer on the matter from first call to final draft — without the overheads of a traditional law firm.
What I bring to the table.
Qualifications
- Foreign-qualified property and commercial lawyer (Ukraine)
- Master of Laws (LLM), Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv (2006)
- Currently preparing for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE)
- Certificate in Project Management, Kyiv-Mohyla Business School (2019)
- Right to work in the UK without sponsorship
Experience & reach
- 20 years of post-qualification practice in property, land, planning, construction and commercial work
- Contract Land Promotion Manager at Montare LLP, a UK strategic-land developer in the South East
- Founder and director of Taran Buro, a Ukrainian commercial-law practice (Kharkiv) — 300+ real estate & construction matters; 40+ retainer clients on record
- Languages: English (professional working), Ukrainian (native), Russian (fluent), German (elementary)
- Based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Professional indemnity insurance: details on request.
Where the practice runs deepest.
Strategic land & land promotion
Promotion, option and collaboration agreements; consultant engagement; investor reporting; landowner and council liaison.
Real estate & construction
Property transactions, development support, construction documentation, due diligence.
Planning law
Planning policy, permissions, public-sector liaison — a perspective from both sides of the table.
Commercial contracts
Drafting, negotiation, redlining; NDA / MSA / playbook design.
Corporate governance
Company formation, shareholder and founders' agreements, board minutes, corporate housekeeping.
GDPR & data protection
Privacy notices, DPIAs, DPAs, subject-access workflows aligned with UK GDPR and DPA 2018.