Dentons has boosted its London real estate practice by poaching four partners from Irwin Mitchell, including head of London real estate Rob Thompson.
Also joining Dentons are partners Robert Dowdell, Lewis Myers and head of corporate real estate Jayne Schnider.
The trio joined Irwin Mitchell in 2010 from legacy SJ Berwin as part of a 20-strong real estate team, who together launched Irwin Mitchell’s London real estate practice.
They brought with a number of clients to Irwin Mitchell including Prestbury, Max Property Group, Gazeley, British Land, Redevco, Raven Russia and Honda.
Thompson advises banks and private equity funds that operate across of number of sectors such as office, hotels, logistics and residential sectors. He replaced Jon Vivian as Irwin Mitchell’s head of London real estate in 2014. His experience includes advising on Wells Fargo/Lone Star on the acquisition of Eurohypo’s £4bn commercial real estate loan book in 2013.
Dowdell specialises in office and industrial investments while Myers focuses on development work in the City office market.
Schnider joined Irwin Mitchell in 2012 from Taylor Wessing where she was a partner. She specialises in complex corporate real estate transactions and acts for investors asset managers and developers.
Dentons UK managing partner Brandon Ransley said: “This is an excellent opportunity for us to acquire four market-leading real estate-focused partners. These partners have worked together for many years, and their arrival will add heavyweight investment expertise to our credentials, while significantly enhancing our existing capacity to deliver the corporate and finance aspects of big-ticket real estate transactions, both in the UK and internationally.”
A spokesperson for Irwin Mitchell said: “Our business legal services team (BLS) has been growing quickly and we have seen a number of people join us in recent weeks and months. As with any other business however, people also leave from time to time and we wish them well in their next ventures.
“We will continue to progress our strategy and invest in profitable areas of BLS and the wider group – including in our real estate teams across the UK, the rest of BLS and the wider group.”
Irwin Mitchell recently merged with South East firm Thomas Eggar in a deal that created a £250m firm. The merger formed part of plans for Irwin Mitchell to refocus the firm towards the private wealth market.
The firm had previously increased its presence in the private client market when it merged with Mayfair-based boutique Berkeley Law. The deal was expected to add between £3m and £4m to the firm’s turnover.
Speaking to The Lawyer in June former Berkeley Law partner and head of private wealth London and international head Nick Rucker said that the firm wished to target the entrepreneurial market to grow its private wealth practice further.
