Pinsents wins property panel places

Pinsent Curtis' property team has won a place on two high-profile panels - with the Woolwich and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food (MAFF).

The national firm has bagged the job of advising MAFF on its general property work in the South of England. Nabarro Nathanson's Sheffield office has won a similar contract for the North.

Adrian Barlow, who heads Pinsents' 33-lawyer property team which will work on the MAFF account, tells The Lawyer that the firm - along with Bristol's Clarke Willmott & Clarke - has also picked up Woolwich's remortgaging work.

The two firms fought off stiff competition from several other firms - understood to be predominantly from the City - to triumph in the MAFF tendering process.

Pinsents and Nabarros take over from the Government Property Lawyers Department (GPL), which closed earlier this year.

Barlow says: "The closure of the GPL is going to mean a lot of work for private practice."

The Pinsents appointment is for three years with the option for MAFF to extend it by two years.

The North/South spilt between the two firms runs roughly from Aberystwyth in Wales to The Wash on the East coast of England.