King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is launching a second UK office in Cambridge, initially to focus on providing services to real estate clients.
Real estate partner Simon Burson, one of a team of nine lawyers including four partners who joined KWM last year from Eversheds, will manage the office.
Burson formerly led the Cambridge real estate team at Eversheds and sat as part of the Cambridge senior management team.
William Naunton, who co-heads the real estate sector at KWM and who also joined the firm from Eversheds in a separate 2014 move that also included its former London managing partner Cornelius Medvei, said: “The Cambridge office means we can provide our clients with different types of service in different locations. It gives us the flexibility to offer our clients high-quality legal services at a cost-efficient price from a dedicated team of sector specialist lawyers.
“It’s also about us investing in additional ways for us to service the needs of our clients and to provide them with options.”
The recent weeks have been a busy period for KWM, with its chief operating officer for Europe and Middle East, Rachel Reid, leaving the firm to join Taylor Wessing shortly after the departure of after the shock resignation of managing partner William Boss, who will step down a year early in May.
The firm also recently launched a review of its capital contributions structure in order to ease cashflow, stop repeated delays to profit distributions and stem the flow of exits by “frustrated” partners.
