Denton Hall’s property chief Stephen Ashworth, whose firm has recently merged with Wilde Sapte, is predicting that European property law will soon be dominated by five practices.
Ashworth, talking to EGi, said, “I can envisage that in ten years there will be five dominant property firms, all with pan-European networks. We [Denton Wilde Sapte] hope to be one of them.”
Ashworth is likely to head the new firm’s property department alongside Wilde Sapte head of property Stan Gniadkowski.
The merged departments’ client list includes NatWest, Sainsbury’s, Sumitomo Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Viacom, Citibank and Virgin. Wilde Sapte’s established PFI practice will dovetail with Denton Hall’s international practice, just as the PFI format is becoming a standard overseas.
Wilde Sapte head of property Stan Gniadkowski said: “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.
EGi News 15/10/99
