Anna Cartwright

Jones Day

When Anna Cartwright took up the reins as the co-leader of Jones Day’s global real estate practice late in 2019 it signalled no let-up whatsoever in her other role at the US firm; that of City corporate group head. That the two areas are key to Jones Day was highlighted in 2020 by its role on one of the stand-out and largest matters of the year, advising Goldman Sachs on the £4.7bn sale of student housing business IQ to Blackstone.

And despite the turbulence in the real estate sector, both it and corporate continue to be central planks of Jones Day’s London offering. Cartwright is now the lawyer tasked with stitching together the component parts of the firm’s practice, including the core transactional elements along with tax, antitrust, regulatory and finance. In short, Cartwright’s message is that real estate is a funds initiative in which clients need broader advice than solely transactional.

Her longstanding focus on private equity real estate, highlighted by the IQ deal (led by corporate partner Giles Elliott and real estate partner David Smith) is indicative both of her and her firm’s focus in the sector, with clients including numerous PE funds and a workload of acquisitions, disposals and restructurings. Now she is one of three global practice group leaders for real estate and the only one covering Europe, expect to see Cartwright banging the drum loudly for Jones Day this year.