Allen & Overy and Addleshaw Goddard are acting on the £210m sale of BT’s iconic HQ overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral to Orion Capital Managers. The deal, part of a major cost-cutting drive, includes an initial leaseback agreement of 30 months during which time the former telecom monopoly will move its HQ to a new London […]
Two partners from Greenberg Traurig’s real estate group are leaving the firm for a rival US player, The Lawyer can reveal, while another member of its corporate team is also exiting for a new role. Real estate-focused private equity partner Tim Webb and colleague Emma Maher are to join K&L Gates, while corporate finance partner […]
Having settled its landmark Brexit dispute, the European Medicines Agency is leasing its Canary Wharf office to WeWork, with firms such as Clifford Chance and Addleshaw Goddard advising.
Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have led in Legal & General’s (L&G) £4bn house-building partnership with the University of Oxford. Slaughters corporate and finance partners Guy O’Keefe and Harry Bacon spearheaded the deal for longstanding client L&G, in its latest bid to tap into the rapidly expanding market of student accommodation. The financial […]
Pinsent Masons is acting on a £2.5bn regeneration and growth programme for the London borough of Harrow. Dubbed “Building a better Harrow”, the project for Harrow Council is being led by real estate partner Scot Morrison alongside procurement director Wendy Nicolson and property senior associate Amy Walker. Though it is a London-focused deal, the team […]
Just down the road from CMS and Linklaters,one of the most venerable firms in Lisbon is undergoing a shake-up that has left the local market dazed.
This summer has seen another round of big pay rises for newly qualified (NQ) solicitors: here’s the wider context.
Thomson Reuters’ acquisition of HighQ was the natural next step for a growing start-up and will be seen as the latest test case in legal tech consolidation.
There are five reasons why Mishcon is likely to opt for an IPO, and while it would certainly shift the firm away from its reliance on partner capital and bank debt, none of those reasons is actually about the availability of cash.
The case-funding world is a fiendishly complex one. The Lawyer hears from two industry figures who believe more should be done to educate legal teams about the benefits of this external help
As an incubator for legal tech and research, DWF Ventures has creativity at its core and with Jonathan Patterson as its leader, looks set to be a true sector disruptor
Acting for UK corporates is the biggest challenge for US outfits in the City, but for the meantime, they’re not breaking out of their lucrative PE bubble. This is in spite of firms such as White & Case and Latham & Watkins going out into the market and hiring big-name magic circle stars from public […]
Is the system conspiring against female barristers? We weigh up the evidence, using data on cases at both the Employment Appeals Tribunal and the Court of Appeal
Akin and Goodwin’s batches of hires last week have put both firms back on the City map, but barely move the dial in terms of London bench strength. Data from The Lawyer’s annual US Top 50 report confirms that a gap is opening up between the top five largest firms and the rest of the […]
By Jason Hayward Over the past two decades, title insurance has gained significant traction in Ontario as a means of providing front-end comfort to owners and lenders alike with respect to purchases and financings of real estate. For owners, a title insurance policy is intended to insure the registered owner’s interest in the land itself; […]
By Fergus Charlton On 24 July, the government released the long-anticipated revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Setting the emphasis on building new homes, Secretary of State for Communities, the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said: “Fundamental to building the homes our country needs is ensuring that our planning system is fit for the future.” […]
Much focus has been given of late to gazumping and the potential pitfalls of the Jersey conveyancing process. Thankfully in practice the vast majority of transactions do eventually make it across the line and in most cases, completion occurs within the allocated window agreed through the estate agent at the outset. Gazumping, while a genuine […]
The Global 200: Real Estate report builds on last year’s Global 200 report, which tracked every single partner in the world’s 200 largest firms by revenue, identifying each partner’s office location, gender and practice area.
By Hugh Richards The Government has published its Housing White Paper “Fixing Our Broken Housing Market”. It will be recalled that in his speech to the party conference in October 2016, the Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, called for “unprecedented steps” to increase the delivery of new homes – his “number one priority” and a […]
The LMA has recently announced the publication of its own form of insurance broker letter for use on real estate finance investment transactions. Broker letters are used to provide comfort to lenders that the obligors are complying with their insurance obligations under the loan agreement, and that the lender (or agent, on syndicated transactions) will be made aware of any issues that arise with […]
By Nigel Lewis In our latest alert, we review the judgment in Larkfleet Ltd v Allison Homes Eastern Ltd which highlights the potentially significant liability implications arising from National House Building Council (NHBC) cover for contractors involved in residential developments. You may be on the hook in terms of possible liability for a lot longer […]
