CC hands control of global real estate group to Spain property head
Clifford Chance has elected Spain real estate head Alfonso Benavides as head of its global real estate practice.
lfonso Benavides
Benavides is a member of the firm’s partner selection group (PSG), a role that he will relinquish on commencing a four-year term as global property chief on 1 September 2010. He takes over from Cliff McAuley, who retires at the end of this year.
Managing Partner David Childs said: “I’m delighted to see Alfonso take up this important role within the firm. He’s well respected by colleagues and clients alike and already has a strong global understanding of the firm through his client work and involvement with the PSG.
“I’m confident Alfonso will bring drive, energy and enthusiasm to his leadership of the practice as we continue to enhance our position as the most international and highly respected real estate practice of any law firm.”
Alfonso Benavides added: “This is an exciting challenge at an important time for the practice. We’re now seeing real estate values stabilising in many markets, creating interesting opportunities for our clients, acting as investors and as finance providers.
“There’s no doubt that real estate remains an important asset class and – in one form or another – will soon be high on many agendas again. I’ll be working closely with my colleagues across our top tier international practice to ensure that we’re best positioned to make the most of those opportunities for our clients.”
McAuley had been re-elected to the global real estate role last year, a position that he has held since 2003, but announced his retirement this year (16 October 2009).
Partner Jonathan Solomon was elected as London real estate head earlier this year (30 June 2010).
Readers' comments (5)
Raquel Muñoz Peña | 24-Aug-2010 12:40 pm
Congrats Alfonso! All my best wishes to you and the CC family.
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Anonymous | 24-Aug-2010 5:56 pm
Yes congratulations Alfonso, nothing against you personally, but this just proves what CC think of real estate in their priorities - a department in decline where the firm feels it can be headed up on a Global basis by someone from a peripheral office because it doesn't really matter to the core business.
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Anonymous | 25-Aug-2010 6:34 am
That's rights. This is the reason why Pawel Debowski left CC and joined Salans. He was supossed to the head of the global real estate practice at CC. This practice seems to be not important for CC.
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Emilio Butragueno | 25-Aug-2010 11:57 am
It looks like they're damned if they do and damned if they don't at CC, according to these posters.
If they never give roles like this to good people in their smaller offices then it looks like all the talk about the network is just hot air. But when they finally promote someone from a 'backwater' it means they don't care about the practice area.
To me, this makes sense. Especially given that Spanish real estate partners can't have much to do domestically at the moment
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Anonymous | 27-Aug-2010 1:17 pm
Congratulations and all the best, I'm sure you'll do well.
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