City duo boosts Osborne Clarke's property team

Osborne Clarke has poached two commercial property specialists from City firms Cameron McKenna and Nicholson Graham & Jones.

Camerons has lost partner Charles Gait from its commercial property department to Osborne Clarke, while property finance specialist Nadine Strahl has joined the firm from Nicholson Graham & Jones.

An Osborne Clarke source told The Lawyer that the firm has long been scouting the market for recruits to boost its property team.

Simon Speirs, head of property at the firm, says: "Nadine and Charles have the specialist skills that take advantage of the current upturn in the market, particularly the development market."

Both Gait and Strahl have acted on significant property deals.

Gait represented E&J Property Investments on a £21m cinema complex development which was completed last December.

He also advised on the largest out-of-London property sale of 1996 - which Cameron Markby Hewitt acted in before its merger with McKenna & Co - in which Birmingham's Fort Retail Park was sold to a group of City investment institutions.

Strahl has recently worked on the acquisition and financing of a £15m office development.

Osborne Clarke has also appointed four partners who have been at the firm since they qualified.

An Osborne Clarke spokeswoman says the internal promotions, which take effect from May, comprise three "corporate boys" and a pensions specialist in the human resources department.

Alisdair Livingstone and Simon Fielder did their traineeship at Osborne Clarke while Greg Leyshon and

pensions specialist Paul Matthews joined the firm on qualification.