Ropes & Gray ups City real estate nous with former Clifford Chance partner

Morpeth joins the US firm’s City base from corporate finance adviser Oppenheimer Investments, where he has been COO since leaving the magic circle firm a year ago. He spent nearly 23 years as a partner at the Canary Wharf firm.

He advises on a range of areas including private equity deals in the real estate sector. The hire comes after Ropes’ private equity clients told the firm they were looking to focus more on real estate, with one client specifically recommending Morpeth for the practice.

Ropes clients with a focus on the property industry include the Baupost Group and Mount Kellett Capital Management.

The US firm’s London co-head Maurice Allen said in a statement: “Our funds, private equity and banking clients are looking at solutions for portfolios of real estate assets and Iain’s wide-ranging and specialised talents in this area are a huge asset for us. This is a fantastic hire of one of the top-ranked private equity real estate lawyers in London, with a focus that few others have.”

The move follows a number of corporate hires into Ropes’ City base last year, including DLA Piper partner Kiran Sharma (28 February 2011) and European private equity head Will Rosen (4 April 2011) and M&A partner Peter Baldwin from Jones Day (9 March 2011). The firm also transferred private equity partner Bill Mone from Boston to London in June.