Three firms share first place for their commercial property work in this year’s ranking of top law firms.
Clifford Chance, Linklaters & Paines and Nabarro Nathanson were named in The Legal 500 – The Client’s Guide to UK Law Firms, 1997.
With 18 partners, Clifford Chance is one of the largest firms in the City and is probably the leading hotel practice in the country. It recently acted on the flotations of Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, Jarvis Hotels and Thistle Hotels.
Linklaters & Paines, which also shared first place last year with Clifford Chance, has 23 partners and a strong reputation in institutional work. Key deals last year included: acting for Ropemaker on the £91.5m sale of 75 King William Street, EC4, to DEGI; for BP on the sale of Britannic Tower to Wates; and for a German fund on the £85m-plus sale of Royal Bank of Canada Centre.
With 36 partners, Nabarro Nathanson – which has moved up from third position last year – is the largest of the three. Despite efforts by the firm to scotch them, rumours of poor quality control linger, said Legal 500 editor Mark Brandon in his commentary. However, he said, the standard of the firm’s work should speak for itself: it acted on the £130m sale of Grosvenor Place to DGI; the £90m sale of Fort Retail Park in Birmingham; and Haslemere’s £64.4m portfolio sale to Hemingway, among others.
Newcastle firm Dickinson Dees pipped Eversheds for first place in the North, while five Manchester firms share top billing in the North West. Leading in the West Midlands are Eversheds, Wragge, Edge & Ellison and Pinsent Curtis.
