It's no surprise that this partner, with her 10 years experience at the company, which opened in 1852, and her colleagues are regarded as the oracle when it comes to retail investment in the province.

"The work Carson McDowell does in the shopping centre industry is very extensive and very long standing," says Rosemary.

"I would say we have acted for more shopping centre owners than any other firm in Northern Ireland. We have a lot of retail clients and our senior partner and head of commercial property Alan Riley has really pioneered that work and is a specialist in it.

"I traditionally acted for the retailers," she continues. "In the past, Jeremy Hill, one of the other partners, and I have acted for the tenants, while Alan has acted for the landlords. However, I am now finding that many of the landlords who would have been sitting across the table are asking me to represent their interests also."

As the political climate in Northern Ireland continues to change and stabilise, Carson says a new type of developer has emerged since she first walked through the doors of the law firm.

"The main difference is the new breed of property developer," she says. "They tend be young, entrepreneurial and have been lucky in one deal and invested their money. With the property boom is a new breed of person."

But that's not the only major change. Carson points out that as the years have passed she's had to become much faster at her job.

"The speed of transaction is also different," she adds. "Email and new technology have revolutionised the speed of transactions, and new technology, in terms of buying shopping centres, is a big deal.

"Years ago you would have had a couple of months to do it and now it's 10 days."

Carson also says that local investors are now showing faith in the Northern Irish market. "Most of the major investment now comes from local guys; 10 years ago it was more institutions and English companies. The locals now buy and they tend to hang on to it.

"I think in the past 10 years property has been the safest investment and I think for the Irish, in particular, land has always been important so they have tended to put their money into bricks and mortar more than anything else."

But as the property market booms, the problems remain and Carson cites planning as the long-standing thorn in her side.

"The biggest difficulty for property developers over the past five years is probably planning, in terms of planning service complications, with permission reviews and so on. If someone gets permission then a competitor will challenge it on a technicality and this becomes the biggest hindrance in terms of planning applications," she explains. "It has certainly delayed a lot of projects and has been detrimental to some but advantageous to others who don't want their competitors going into the market."

While planning is the main issue for many of Carson's clients, she says discussions about introducing a tax on planning gains are also an ongoing concern.

"It's going to be very unpopular with developers but the way things are going it seems they won't be able to avoid it," she says.

It seems delays in planning aren't putting off the many UK retailers and property developers moving more and more into the Northern Irish market. According to Carson they are happy to wait it out to reap the rewards.

"We act for a lot of English retailers and figures show they do better here than the mainland, but who knows whether that will change if the house market slows down and things like water rates and the education system change," she says. "At the minute, Northern Ireland would be better than the mainland for retailers.

"I can't say it's price that gets them to come here because its dearer than England. I think it is the fact that retailers do better here than elsewhere. With The Troubles and so on, there is a lot of potential to exploit the market as a lot of people work here so there is less competition.

"A lot of retailers have come here since, but the traditional high street retailers, such as M&S, Topshop and Arcadia were always here," Carson adds. "They took the risk and knew it was paying off because of the high levels of trade. There have been a lot of fresh names in the past 10 years."

It seems, however, no matter what the issue facing a retailer, Carson McDowell has it covered.

"Our company works for both landlords and tenants, and because of that we know every angle," explains Carson. "We have a very strong team of 14 solicitors working with clients on contracts and have professionals working on planning and environment issues.

"There is a big emphasis on environmental issues when building, for example, a supermarket," she adds.

"Environmental advice is very important because of political emphasis on revitalising town centres and redeveloping. These sites have been used before so there are often implications; we ensure we have the expertise in-house to deal with that."

raising retail standards

Rosemary Carson's advice to anyone considering entering the retail end of the property market:

"In terms of investment, probably the best opportunities are in new development as opposed to proven shopping centres because prices here are very strong.

"An English person can't come and get a bargain, in fact, it's other way round in terms of retailing.

"It very much depends on the offer and adding something new to the market but the larger element of disposable income in Northern Ireland is a strong draw.

"People are more sophisticated and aren't prepared to live with shoddy shop fronts. Look at the design that has gone into The Outlet - Northern Irish consumers don't want to go to some barn."

Who is Rosemary Carson?

Rosemary Carson was the first woman to be made partner in Carson McDowell, a law firm that had been male dominated since it opened in 1852.

She spent her training years at Belfast firm Johns Elliot Solicitors, a niche practice, which traditionally acted for the old-style aristocratic land owners. "I got a very good grounding at Johns Elliott but when I came to Carson McDowell 10 years ago I was able to primarily specialise in commercial property, which, at that time, was very much grounded on retail," says Carson. "When I came to this department it was about a third of its size."

And, of course, working for one of the biggest commercial law firms in Northern Ireland means that the Van Morrison fan is dedicated to her clients' needs at all times, believing commitment is one of her secrets to success.

"It's extremely long hours and pressurised work and that's largely because of transactions today," she says. "It's not an easy career path but the buzz of seeing a development go up and being involved in big deals is great - no pain, no gain.

"I think the demand from clients is very high and clients don't really want to know what you have to do to achieve something, they just want you to do it. But if you want to work with high-profile clients and do high-profile deals, be prepared to make sacrifices in other areas."

Asked if she was a workaholic, Carson believes it's important to strike a balance.

"I would say a workaholic is someone who only thinks about work or is obsessed with their work," she explains, "but I am dedicated to supporting my clients and getting them where they want to be.

"I had a client in Vancouver, last year, buying a centre and they regularly rang me in middle of the night."

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