Stephen Ashworth, head of property at Denton Hall, which this week announced its merger with fellow City firm Wilde Sapte, said he hoped the new combined property practice will be in the top three in the country.
Ashworth, who is likely to head the new department alongside Wilde Sapte head of property Stan Gniadkowski, said the Denton Wilde Sapte merger was part of the long-term consolidation in the legal sector.
“I can envisage that in ten years time there will be five dominant property firms, all with pan-European practices. We hope to be one of them.”
The client list of the newly merged firm includes NatWest, J Sainsbury, Sumitomo Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Viacom, Citibank and Virgin. Wilde Sapte’s established PFI practice will dovetail with Denton Hall’s international practice, just at a time the PFI format is becoming a standard overseas.
Wilde Sapte head of property Stan Gniadkowski, told PLS: “Japan has just changed its laws to allow them to do PFI – obviously we hope with Denton Hall’s international connections we will now be able to compete with Clifford Chance and Linklaters in exporting English legal formats.”
The 120 fee-earner property department will initially be based at Denton Hall’s headquarters in Chancery Lane.
PLS News 14/10/99
