Chelsea Walters

Group Legal Director

Chelsea is a highly experienced lawyer who joined Wates in 2011 from CMS, having begun her career at Clifford Chance, and has over 20 years’ experience in the legal industry, negotiating and advising on complex transactions for a wide range of clients in the banking, corporate and built environment sectors.

She has grown the in-house legal team to a department of 9, made up of 8 lawyers and a legal PA, setting the legal strategy and implementing legal services across the Group, putting in place the Group’s external legal panel and aligning her team’s resources with the Group’s strategic priorities and business needs.

The in-house legal team is responsible for advising on construction, corporate, commercial, governance, ethics and regulatory issues, adding commercial value to the Group’s projects, and providing innovative, strategic, efficient, commercial and pragmatic legal advice in the most cost-effective way to the Business Units and to the Group functions. Chelsea is a member of the Executive Committee and attends Group Board, along with each of the other formal Group committees.