Midlands law firm Wright Hassall has strengthened its real estate team with the recent appointment of a further 10 lawyers.
The Leamington-based firm now has one of the largest real estate team in the region outside of Birmingham.
The team now draws together more than 30 specialist real estate, construction, environmental, and planning lawyers.
New partner Terry Dickson has joined from Birmingham practice Emms Gilmore Liberson, while James Richards and Andrew Beresford, both formerly of Gowling WLG, and Andrew Jones, from HCB, have all been appointed as senior associates.
Development solicitor Fiona Martin joins from London-based Charles Russell Speechlys as an associate and Natalie Owen, formerly of Shoosmiths, as an associate with a focus on social housing.
Planning solicitor Ben Arrowsmith has been recruited from Pinsent Masons, while Lauren Perkins, Daniel Macleod and Harinder Kundhi have been appointed solicitors. Paralegal Raminder Kaur completes the new arrivals.
Wright Hassall’s real estate team acts for developers, registered providers of affordable housing, land owners, investors, banks and corporate occupiers across the UK.
In the last six months the development team has been involved in a string of important developments including Tata Technologies £16m European HQ development in Warwick, the relocation of Birmingham Wholesale Markets, the relocation of cleaning technology company Karcher UK and Warwickshire College’s new state-of-the-art automotive and product creation engineering facilities.
The team has also continued to be involved in the region’s largest strategic land residential development transactions.
Development Partner Mark Miller said: “Wright Hassall’s Real Estate Development team continues to grow from strength to strength offering developers and other clients involved in land development a credible alternative to the law firms they may have considered using previously.
“Developers no longer have to look to the second city or London to find the development specialists that they need to make development deals happen. We offer all of that expertise under one roof.
Miller added: “The last year has been a very strong 12 months for Wright Hassall generally and specifically for the real estate team. The firm advised on over 50 bank lending deals during the year with a funding value of £175m, completed a significant number of development land transactions including acting on some very exciting development projects across the region.
“We are able to attract real estate lawyers to the firm who have worked in City and national practices and are excited to work with our fantastic client base.
“We expect 2016 to be a strong year for the region from a real estate development perspective in particular and Wright Hassall’s real estate team is well placed to play an integral part in supporting this growth.”
