London—Bryan Johnston, partner and Head of Dentons' UK Real Estate Litigation team, has been appointed chair of the Property Litigation Association (PLA), the members' organisation for professionals specialising in all aspects of commercial, residential and agricultural property litigation in the UK.

Bryan has been part of the PLA’s law reform committee for several years, helping to influence key changes in property law – most recently in his position as vice chair. In 2018, these have included revisions to the draft bill on the 'staircase tax', the disclosure pilot and the lease renewal pilot scheme. The committee is currently actively engaged in over 30 initiatives.

He takes over from Martin Edwards, partner at Shakespeare Martineau to become the 24th chair since the organisation was established in 1995 to represent property litigators in the UK. Bryan commenced his new role on 15 November 2018.

Bryan says, "I am delighted to take on the role of chair for an organisation with so much potential to effect positive change in the property industry. We must be relentless in our pursuit of law reform; if we are not, then this affects confidence in our law and the credibility of our legal system. We want to continue to promote property litigation, increase membership to ensure the representation of lawyers at every stage of their career across the UK, and focus on education, training, lobbying and networking."

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