Real Estate and Infrastructure

Wellington Place, Leeds

CMS lands in Leeds with office launch

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang has followed up on several hires in Leeds with the opening of a new office. Located at Wellington Place, the office has been primarily set up to provide a space for its lawyers when working with clients in Yorkshire. A spokesperson for CMS said in a statement: “We have a […]

Dentons triumphs as M&S wins Oxford Street store dispute

Dentons has secured a triumph for Marks & Spencer, safeguarding the retailer’s plans for its flagship store on Oxford Street. In a judgment handed down this morning, Mrs Justice Lieven ruled in favour of the supermarket on five of the six grounds it had brought against the Secretary of State (SoS) for Levelling Up, Housing […]

house for sale home

Linklaters secures first key mandate for Barratt on £2.5bn housing merger

Linklaters and Slaughter and May are advising two housebuilders on their £2.5bn merger. It was announced this morning that listed company Barratt Developments is combining with fellow plc Redrow. FTSE favourites Linklaters and Slaughters acted for Barratt and Redrow, respectively. This is understood to be Linklaters’ first major M&A mandate for Barratt Developments, which has […]

Freeths Manchester

Freeths bucks downsizing trend with UK office expansion

Freeths has expanded its UK office footprint by 30 per cent in recent months in anticipation of future growth. The firm has increased its footprint across its offices in Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol from 29,906 sq ft to 38,853 sq ft. Bristol will expand the most by a whopping 87 per cent from 4,479 […]

all in office

Fladgate to dock pay in switch to four-day week

Property associates at City firm Fladgate have been asked to work a four-day work week, along with a corresponding pay cut, The Lawyer understands. According to RollOnFriday, lawyers were told that the decrease in workdays was a necessary cost saving move. Affected lawyers in the real estate team are understood to have until 22 December […]

document assess inquiry

Top 100 UK firm fined £100,000 over money laundering breaches

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has fined a UK firm in excess of £100,000 after it was found to have not taken steps to mitigate sanctions risk in historic conveyancing transactions. Ashfords, which has offices in Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter and London, was subject to an SRA investigation after reporting itself to the regulator in 2019. […]

London towers, office City

Trowers redundancies: Another 25 roles at risk

Trowers & Hamlins has kicked off a second round of redundancies in its real estate team, following another consultation in the firm earlier this year. It emerged last month that the first round of cuts had resulted in 25 lawyers, including some partners, exiting the firm.  The latest development means Trowers could be letting go […]

22 Bishopsgate

US firms lead the charge in hunt for new office space

As firms including King & Spalding and Proskauer Rose agree new office deals in London, real estate data for Q3 shows there’s no let-up in demand for plush City space. Data provided by Knight Frank shows that law firms leased over 380,000 sq ft of space in Q3, which was 70 per cent higher than […]

Trowers makes cuts in real estate

A wave of redundancies continues to hit the legal market as Trowers & Hamlins and Mishcon de Reya are the latest to make cuts within their firms. First reported on RollonFriday, Trowers has begun a redundancy consultation that will thin the real estate and real estate finance teams by 25 lawyers, with partners also understood […]

The three Fs: How the City’s mid-market stack up

The makeup of the London legal market is as diverse as the clients and industries it serves, featuring an array of firms across the spectrum in terms of size, clientele and revenue. For every magic circle firm, the legal market of the City provides a rich hunting ground for smaller firms that generate a fraction […]

Axiom Ince moves: Two teams join RPC and Mezzle

As the fallout from Axiom Ince continues, UK and UAE firm Mezzle has hired a team from the firm in Birmingham and RPC has bagged a quartet of corporate lawyers in London. Former Axiom lawyer Agnes Gay, who is moving to Mezzle, has spent five years at Axiom Ince (or Axiom DWFM as it was). Her practice […]