Real Estate and Infrastructure

Poaching staff

Start poaching planning partners

As Sir Keir Starmer settles into Number 10, so law firms must adapt to the new political order. With that in mind, it is worth taking note of a couple of lateral moves that have taken place in the mid-tier in the last couple of weeks. Alex Madden, the head of planning at South West […]

Copenhagen, Denmark

Danish firm cuts roles amid real estate downturn

Danish big five firm Accura has made a handful of redundancies in its real estate team, citing sustained macroeconomic pressures that have supressed deal flow. The firm declined to specify how many lawyers in its team had left the firm, instead calling the move a “minor adjustment of the real estate organisation to the current […]

HS2 route

Judge slams Environment Agency and HS2 over litigation

Mrs Justice Joanna Smith has rebuked the Environment Agency (EA) and High Speed Two (HS2) for their taxpayer-funded litigation in judgment handed down today (21 June) at the Technology and Construction Court. In the conclusion to her judgment, she said: “By way of postscript, I observe that it is extremely unfortunate that these two bodies, […]

Rent increase

Norton Rose and Slaughters lead on housebuilder bid

UK housebuilder Crest Nicholson is fending off advances from larger rival Bellway, with Norton Rose Fulbright and Slaughter and May at the helm. On Friday, Crest rejected Bellway’s second bid for the company in the last two months, which valued it at £650m. A merger of the two companies could create a business with an […]

Stockholm

Linklaters team defects in Stockholm

A seven-lawyer real estate team led by one of Linklaters’ longest-serving partners in Stockholm has left the firm to join a local player. Longstanding real estate partner Magnus Lidman retired from the Linklaters partnership earlier this year, but has re-emerged as the star name among this group leaving to join Sweden’s Gernandt & Danielsson (G&D). […]

Election 2024: A manifesto to manifest more housing

The general election has been called and if, as anticipated, we have a new government what can we expect in terms of planning and housing delivery over the next five years? I have been a planning lawyer specialising in the delivery of residential led mixed use developments for 25 years and, throughout that time, there […]

Tax advice

Womble Bond Dickinson faces negligence claim over £126m project

Womble Bond Dickinson is facing a multimillion-pound negligence claim filed by former clients over a failed real estate redevelopment project in Kensington. The claimants, businessman Kristian Siem, property developer Steven Wake and his company Chapters, were advised by WBD senior counsel (then partner) Robert Drewett in their redevelopment project in 2017. They allege that the […]

From left to right: Leah Bouckley, Stuart McDonald, Sufyan Mulla, Ben Acheson and Alicia Robinson

Hill Dickinson swipes two more Irwin Mitchell teams to build Birmingham office

Hill Dickinson is swiftly growing its new Birmingham office, with the addition of two more teams from Irwin Mitchell. The firm has significantly strengthened its real estate capabilities in the Midlands, adding expertise in both transactions and litigation to the five-strong corporate team it onboarded in February to launch the office. The real estate team […]

Redundancy

Knights joins wave of firm redundancies

Listed firm Knights has become the latest firm to make lawyers redundant across the country, The Lawyer can reveal. It is understood that both partner and associate roles have been cut across the firm’s restructuring and insolvency, corporate, and real estate teams. The redundancies have taken place across the firm’s offices in the UK, with […]

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 […]