Finance partner Dean Gormley and real estate partners Andrew Wallis and Kevin Fox will join the firm in Manchester from Irwin Mitchell, while real estate partner Laura Oliver joins in Guildford from Hogan Lovells. Andrew, Kevin and Dean join this month, with Laura joining in July. The hires strengthen Clyde & Co’s transactional offering to clients in the UK, and expand the firm’s strong UK real estate, finance and construction teams which offers a fully rounded contentious and non-contentious services to clients.
Andrew and Kevin advise on all aspects of commercial real estate matters including transactions, structures, development and regeneration projects. Andrew specialises in portfolio transactions and forward funding and development agreements between investors, developers, landowners and businesses with a particular interest toward housing led projects. Kevin focuses on investment property and portfolio management as well as strategic land, mixed use development and regeneration projects. He also has a keen interest and specialism in advising the Higher Education sector on estate matters.
Dean is a finance specialist who advises borrowers, lenders and investors on the financing of real estate transactions, with a particular focus on development schemes, including residential and student accommodation and hotel development projects. He also advises on corporate banking, acquisition/leveraged finance and asset based lending transactions.
Laura has expertise across a wide variety of transactional real estate matters including high value investment acquisitions, disposals and lettings. She also advises on the real estate aspects of corporate disposals and acquisitions, financings and restructurings and has experience in leasehold liability transactions.
Dean Gormley comments: “Clyde & Co is an excellent fit for us and we see a real opportunity, thanks to its global presence and the broad range of disciplines it offers, to provide our clients with a much fuller range of services that they so often require from their legal advisors. Having worked together on client mandates at our previous firm, Andrew, Kevin and I are looking forward to working closely with the team in Manchester as well as Laura in Guildford and the real estate and construction teams around the firm.”
Laura Oliver comments: “I am looking forward to being part of a practice with huge ambitions for growth and a committed strategy to pursue that growth. These factors, together with the firm’s national and global platform and strong client base make Clyde & Co the obvious choice for the next stage of my career.”
Partner Graeme Taylor adds: “Once the economy restarts following the coronavirus lockdown, we expect real estate and construction businesses to face a busy period assessing the risks and opportunities they face. Through these hires I feel that we will be well placed as a practice to support those businesses through what will be a turbulent time.”
Clyde & Co’s real estate group provides market participants with a comprehensive transactional and contentious service, including strategic occupier & tenant advice, leasing and portfolio management, financing and fund structuring, development strategy and assistance, as well as the full range of planning applications and advice. The team also resolves disputes using all forms of dispute resolution – with particular prowess in settlement of claims, adjudication and litigation.
