Nina Pindham

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Nina Pindham specialises in environmental law matters in the context of planning applications. Her experience includes several of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe, spanning offshore and onshore wind energy, solar & nuclear energy development, strategic battery storage development, water infrastructure, data centres, rail (including HS2), minerals development, hazardous substances, waste, EIA, SEA, agriculture, water, air quality, and nature conservation issues. She has particular expertise in relation to the Habitats Regulations. She has represented clients before the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and the United Nations. Nina currently serves as Chair of the UK’s Environmental Law Association.

She has been ranked as a leading junior in Environmental Law by the Legal 500, one of the country’s top-rated juniors by Planning Magazine, and a leading junior by Chambers and Partners. Comments include: “her ability to crack intellectually challenging issues is unbelievable. If you think of it as chess, she is always three or four moves ahead of the opposition”, “has a tremendous capacity to take in a great deal of information and get straight to the point”, “an incredible advocate”. Nina has also featured as one of The Planner’s Women of Influence and in the ENDS Power List of the most influential environmental professionals: “she is one of, if not the, leader in her field”. Nina is the author of the book A Practical Guide to Biodiversity Net Gain, published by Law Brief Publishing.

At COP27 Nina was awarded the Global Leadership Award in Climate Law for her work with an international coalition of bar associations seeking to build the capacity of the legal sector in relation to climate change where it is relevant to legal advice, so as to best serve the needs of lawyers’ clients. She studied science at university: her undergraduate thesis research (a baseline water quality assessment of three economically significant rivers) was published and resulted in revised government policy. She is keenly interested in the arts and travel; her art has won several awards and been exhibited globally. She has lived and worked in India, Italy and Lebanon. At one point or another she was, variously, able to speak Estonian, Levantine Arabic, Italian, French and Modern Standard Arabic. She is currently studying Hindi, improving her Estonian and learning to play the violin.

Expertise

Environment
Environment

She has appeared in a number of the UK’s leading strategic environmental law claims, including R (Finch) v Surrey County Council [2024] UKSC 20 concerning the question of whether downstream greenhouse gas emissions were indirect effects of an oil and gas mine for the purposes of environmental impact assessment, R (Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2024] EWHC 995 (Admin) (the successful challenge to the Government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan), R (Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2022] EWHC 1841 (Admin) (the successful challenge to the Government’s Net Zero Strategy), R (Friends of the Earth Ltd) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2019] EWHC 518 (Admin) concerning the failure to carry out an assessment of the environmental impacts of the National Planning Policy Framework, and Fish Legal’s successful claim that an energy company is a public authority for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. She appeared on behalf of HS2 (led by Richard Kimblin KC) in R (Misbourne Environmental Protection Ltd) v Environment Agency [2021] EWHC 3094 (Admin) (concerning the legality of the permitting process for the Chiltern Tunnel section of HS2). She then acted for HS2 in relation to four CAAD appeals in the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) (led by Guy Williams KC) concerning the compulsory purchase of land to form the terminus of HS2 in central Birmingham.

She also has significant international environmental law experience, having represented the communicants for a complaint before the UN’s Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee which resulted in the Aarhus costs regime being extended to claims under s.288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. She was then subsequently instructed by the UK Government to represent it before the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. She served as editor of a toolkit setting out legal frameworks for Paris Agreement-aligned investment in each of Africa’s 54 states. She worked alongside an international coalition of bar associations working to increase the legal sector’s capacity to respond to the green transition, for which she was awarded a Global Leadership Award by the Climate Law and Governance Initiative at COP27. She is currently organising a global legal assistance project to assist states seeking help implementing and enforcing commitments under the UNFCCC and UNCBD (the UN’s climate and biodiversity conventions).

She was instructed by a coalition of Caribbean NGOs in the request for an advisory opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and has written and presented on the implications of the IACtHR and ICJ’s Advisory Opinions for domestic litigation.

Nina has been asked to provide advice on environmental law to foreign governments and has been an invited speaker at environmental law conferences in Europe, America, Canada, Africa, and Asia.

Water Infrastructure

Nina has particular expertise in water law, having served as a co-convener of the UK’s Environmental Law Association’s Water Working Party for six years, through which she has participated in numerous consultations on changes to the water sector. She has extensive experience advising water companies on their powers and obligations under the Water Industry Act 1991, the Water Resources Act 1991, and the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016; as well as in relation to permitted development rights and in their role as statutory undertakers. She also advises local authorities of their powers and duties under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, statutory undertakers and local authorities in relation to their duties concerning private water supplies, and in relation to private surface water sewers, CSOs, and appeals against regulator-initiated variations of environmental permits. She regularly defends water companies against prosecutions for breaches of the terms of an environmental permit, and regularly prosecutes on behalf of water companies in relation to breaches of trade effluent consents.

She has successful experience of the use of the civil penalty regime for environmental offences under Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. Experience also includes defending water companies in prosecutions brought by the Drinking Water Inspectorate. She appeared in the Court of Appeal in R (on the application of Seiont, Gwyrfai and Llyfni Anglers’ Society) v Natural Resources Wales [2016] EWCA Civ 797, the leading case on the interpretation of “environmental damage” under the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) Regulations 2009 (led by Richard Kimblin KC). She also appeared on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Environment in the leading case on the interpretation of the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017: Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v R (Pickering Fishery Association) [2025] EWCA Civ 378.

She was instructed in connection with the first major new reservoir to be built in England in 30 years, and regularly advises on planning, consenting and ancillary legal matters in relation to new water infrastructure projects. She is currently instructed in relation to the application for development consent for the second largest reservoir in England (the South-East Strategic Reservoir Option, better known as the Abingdon Reservoir) on behalf of GARD.

Energy and Data Centre Infrastructure

Nina has advised on all aspects of major energy development, from nuclear and offshore wind to local-scale onshore wind and solar farms. Her experience with major energy infrastructure projects includes advising in relation to one of Europe’s largest battery energy storage schemes (as part of Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park), the development of a strategic-scale LNG storage depot in the context of conflicting adjacent land uses, Hinckley Point C, the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, pipelines supplying Heathrow and Gatwick with jet fuel, and the ABLE Marine Energy Park. She has represented clients successfully at appeal, including where energy infrastructure is proposed within the Green Belt, and regularly advises clients at all stages of clean energy development, from initial concept stage to post-decision matters.

She has also advised in relation to data centres, including (but not exclusively) in relation to environmental impacts.

Nature Conservation

Nina has extensive experience with nature conservation law, including the legal regime establishing the requirement for biodiversity net gain. She was seconded to Natural England, where she advised on the applicability of marine conservation laws to the Crown and issues arising under the Highways Act, the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act, the Wildlife and Countryside Act, the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations and the Habitats Directive. She has regularly advised public bodies, landowners, and developers on nutrient neutrality. She is a member of the Advisory Group concerning the development of Environmental Delivery Plans and the Nature Recovery Fund under the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. She is also regularly instructed in relation to litigation raising nature conservation issues, including on behalf of Wildlife and Countryside Link in the Supreme Court case of CG Fry v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] UKSC 35.

Minerals

Nina advises applicants and mineral planning authorities on controversial applications including several proposals for minerals development in national parks and other highly sensitive areas. She successfully argued for the validity of a restoration condition in relation to the last remaining coal mine in England which included determining the status of a mine (whether pre-1948 and therefore one to which the GDO regime applied). She acted for the successful defendant mineral planning authority in R (Haden) v Shropshire Council [2020] EWHC 33 (Admin) (adequacy of environmental information and impact of minerals development on vulnerable residents). Her work extends to minerals development in Wales, including cases where operators have absconded without fulfilling restoration obligations and/or where viability considerations arise in relation to restoration obligations.
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Housing

Nina has acted for developers, local authorities and third parties in a range of housing appeals. Work includes acting for developers at inquiries where issues involved policy, heritage, housing land supply, noise, and transport and highways impact, and successfully challenging and defending decisions. She has appeared before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in a number of cases concerning the legality of planning decision-making on matters including compliance with the development plan, consideration of environmental impacts in decision-making, the materiality of planning considerations, the role of viability concerns, ransom strips, and has successfully argued a planning decision was irrational. She has also successfully acted for the government concerning the scope of the court’s powers when reviewing decisions in the context of allegations of misinterpretation of policy, the exercise of planning judgment, and allegedly unfair decision-making procedures.

Examinations in Public

Nina has appeared at a large number of Examinations in Public. Work includes appearing for developers proposing strategic scale sites, including new towns, opposing allocation of land as Local Green Space; appearing for a developer opposing a proposed mayoral referendum prior to the grant of planning permission for new residential development; and appearing for developers in relation to flaws in the Sustainability Appraisal. She is also experienced in legal challenges (including injunctions) concerning the decision to adopt a plan under s.113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

CIL/Section 106

Nina has advised a range on of clients on the applicability of the CIL Regulations to specific contributions, including advice on the legality of district and county-wide policy on contributions, the impact of the removal of regulation 123 of the CIL Regulations, and applications to vary planning obligations under a s.106 agreement. She has acted for developers challenging requested contributions and for local planning authorities defending requests. She has appeared at affordable housing appeals under s. 106BC Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and is experienced in the arbitration process to determine disputes arising under s.106 agreements. She was junior to Richard Kimblin KC in a leading case on reg. 122 (as well as the scope of the duty under s.38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004): R (on the application of Hampton Bishop PC) v Herefordshire Council [2014] EWCA Civ 878.

Heritage

Nina regularly advises on a wide range of heritage issues. She has successfully appeared at a number of planning inquiries where a main issue has been the heritage impact of the development and has experience with applications for listed buildings consent, the determination of optimum viable use, applications for enabling development, and injunctions under s.44A of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. She appeared for the Claimant in R (on the application of Fulford Parish Council) v City of York Council [2013] EWHC 3924 (Admin), a case concerning the location of the Battle of Fulford (led by Ian Dove QC), and in the Court of Appeal in a leading case on the setting of heritage assets: Steer v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2018] EWCA Civ 1697.

Special Controls

Nina has experience of s.215 notices, has appeared before the Upper Tribunal in relation to compensation under the TPO regime, and regularly advises in relation to advertisements and restrictions applying to development in the Green Belt.
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