Expertise from the property industry is to guide expansion at Kent firm Cripps Harries Hall, the latest law firm to announce the appointment of a high-profile non-executive consultant.

Christopher Digby-Bell (pictured), a director and general counsel at property investment business Palmer Capital, has been appointed on a non-executive basis to drive the property practice’s business development.

Jonathan Denny, Cripps’ managing partner, said the firm had decided that while it ‘did not need external investment’, it did need external expertise to expand.

Digby-Bell, one-time managing partner of what was then City firm Taylor Garrett, said a firm in Cripps’ position can rely on significant organic growth: ‘I detect an oversupply of property lawyers in the London market.

‘Combined with the rise of more educated clients, willing to look more closely at the firms they are instructing, that represents an opportunity for a firm with the right approach and pricing.’