Wragges property team wins Pearson

Pearson, which typically uses Freshfields and Denton Wilde Sapte for property work, instructed Wragges after the firm successfully competed in a secret tender process.

Wragges' success in the beauty parade was due partly to the firm's presence in London. Since the firm launched a property practice in the City, Pearson relationship partner Mark Dakeyne spent considerable time meeting potential clients.

The firm's real estate team advised the publishing-to-education group, which owns the Financial Times, on the £2.3m lease of a 440,000sq ft storage and distribution warehouse, serving two of its main publishing businesses.

Separately, Wragges' national property chairman, Gerald Bland, has advised Carisbrooke on a multimillion-pound financing and acquisition deal of a 330 acre industrial estate. Carisbrooke, a team of chartered surveyors, is just one of the clients Bland brought over from Herbert Smith, his former firm.

The new facility has been developed by Prologis Developments Limited at Central Park, Rugby, and was then customised to Pearson's specification. It will bring together, for the first time, the distribution operations of Penguin Books and Pearson Education.