This year’s league tables of commercial property law firms and lawyers show Linklaters & Paines coming out on top.
Amanda Seidl analyses the results.
Linklaters & Paines, described as “the Rolls-Royce of the legal commercial property world” by its peers, has been voted the top commercial property law firm in London, according to Chambers Directory of Leading Law Firms 1997-98, published next week. Linklaters narrowly beat Nabarro Nathanson to the top slot, reversing last year’s positions, but Nabarros, which is in the throes of reorganisation, is expected to resume its leading position next year.
Linklaters’ clients include Royal Sun Alliance, Lend Lease, MEPC and LPUT. Its high-profile work over the past 12 months included involvement in major City HQ developments for ABN Amro, Liffe and DMG; acting for Lend Lease on the refinancing of its Bluewater shopping centre in Kent; and advising SPP in the sale of the Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham.
Nabarro Nathanson, with 36 partners and 111 fee-earners, has the larger property team of the two. It has undergone considerable restructuring in the past year, which, in the view of those interviewed by Chambers’s researchers, affected its performance.
Clients include Slough Estates, Capital & Counties and Land Securities. It was involved in several large property transactions: the purchase of Royal Brompton Hospital for Northacre; the funding of Clockhouse Place at Bedfont Lakes near Heathrow for Hanover Property Trust; and the sale of 27 properties by Haslemere Estates to Hemingway Properties.
Ashurst Morris Crisp and Berwin Leighton were ranked close behind Linklaters and Nabarro, with five big firms – SJ Berwin & Co, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Herbert Smith and Lovell White Durrant – all ranked in the top 10. The last two acted on such high-profile deals as the sales of the MOD married quarters estate and of the DSS estate. Though the large firms dominated the top ranks in London, specialist practice Maxwell Batley was cited for the quality of its work.
Chambers conducted more than 100 interviews with lawyers and their clients to come up with the leading practices and individuals for its annual directory, which covers all the main areas of law. The recovery of the property market made a difference to the rankings this year as firms strong in insolvency work lost ground to practices specialising in development work and finance. Planning specialists such as Berwin Leighton and Herbert Smith have moved up the rankings as the amount of development work increases. The boom in leisure and retail development, increased investment interest and progress in the Private Finance Initiative have led to much greater volumes of work across all sectors and a higher rating for firms involved in those sectors.
Not surprisingly, the top 10 property lawyers mostly belong to firms featured in the top ranks. Geoffrey Lander of Nabarro and Robert Finch and David Lloyd of Linklaters are familiar names in the top 10, but Teddy Bourne of Clifford Chance has been elevated from the “also rans”. He puts his promotion down to his chairmanship of the Investment Property Forum’s working party on streamlining commercial property transactions and to Clifford Chance’s expertise in the hotel, retail and leisure sectors, PFI and real estate finance. During the past year, Clifford Chance acted for Canary Wharf in Citibank’s forward purchase of its new headquarters and for Burford Group on preletting the Finchley Road retail and leisure development in north London.
Risk of understaffing
Ashurst Morris Crisp’s Laurence Rutman and Ian Nisse are among the top 10 individuals, reflecting the firm’s high standing in the league tables. Managing partner Ian Nisse was singled out for his excellence and enters the top 10 individuals rank for the first time, but his small team of 11 partners and 36 assistants is now so busy that it risks becoming understaffed.
Berwin Leighton, ranked equal third with Ashurst in the top 10 firms, has two leading individuals: Philip Bretherton and Lawrence Heller. A frequent contributor to Estates Gazette, Heller is something of a media personality, editing Longman’s Practical Commercial Precedents and contributing to BBC Select/Legal Network Television. Berwin Leighton is widely thought to be pushing hard on the heels of Linklaters and Nabarro and is well known as a City deal-maker for clients such as British Land, Tesco, Prudential and CIN La Salle.
The smallest property team of the top 10 firms, with just seven partners and 14 assistants, SJ Berwin & Co, has raised its profile through a substantial increase in its institutional work. It acted for British Land in its joint venture with Great Universal Stores and for J Sainsbury Developments in its sale of seven retail parks to Grantchester.
London firms tend to dominate the South East so that small firms based in the M25 towns did not feature strongly in Chambers’s research. Although no leading firms for the Home Counties made the top 10, Woolastons in Chelmsford, Linnells in Oxford, Blake Lapthorn in Fareham, Donne Mileham & Haddock in Brighton, Hepherd Winstanley & Pugh in Southampton, Rawlinson & Butler in Crawley, Thomas Eggar Verrall Bowles in Horsham and Thomson Snell & Passmore in Tunbridge Wells were all highly regarded.
In the South West, Burges Salmon and Veale Wasborough, based in Bristol, dominated the field. Veale Wasborough was recommended as being not only excellent technically but also very approachable and friendly. Runner-up Bond Pearce, based in Plymouth and Exeter, has carved a niche in the minerals, energy and waste sectors. It shared second place with Exeter firm Michelmores’ team of seven, which is strong on retail work, and with Bristol-based Osborne Clark, which is described as the “Freshfields of the region”.
Clarke Willmott & Clark of Taunton, Crawford Owen of Bristol, and Lyons Davidson of Bristol all received high ratings, as did Bevan Ashford of Bristol.
The rest of the country sees the giant Eversheds consistently in the top rankings. It is described as “a class act” by its rivals. In Wales, Eversheds and Edwards Geldard stay at the top, closely followed by Hugh James and Morgan Bruce.
Wragge & Co is still considered to be the best in the Midlands, followed by Eversheds and Edge & Ellison. Wragge’s David Askin is ranked as the top individual alongside Adrian Bland of Eversheds, and the two firms have shared some of the most prestigious Midlands transactions over the past year. While Wragge acted for PowerGen on the 364ha (900 acre) Hams Hall rail-linked distribution park, Eversheds advised on the Daventry International Railfreight Terminal in Northamptonshire.
Eversheds also scores highly in the North West, sharing joint first place with Addleshaw Booth & Co, Cobbetts, Dibb Lupton & Alsop and Halliwell Landau, and in East Anglia, where it is rated alongside Hewitson Becke & Shaw and Mills & Reeve.
The picture is similar in the North East, where Eversheds once again tops the charts with Addleshaw Booth & Co. Dibb Lupton Alsop, Dickson Dees and Walker Morris are close behind, followed by Hammond Suddards and Pinsent Curtis.
The situation is also clear-cut in Scotland, where Dundas & Wilson and McGrigor Donald are ahead of the field.
The growing importance of PFI as a subsector of the property market for lawyers is reflected by, for the first time, a separate business area in the directory. The sector is closely linked to international project finance, a skill likened by one lawyer to “herding cats”, so it is no surprise that the same names appear in both areas of practice.
Linklaters & Paines appears in the top slot in both categories with Bruce White being named as “the best PFI man of the lot”. Like its competitors Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance, Linklaters has a strong international presence in project finance. Allen & Overy, meanwhile, has one of the strongest major projects practices in the world, and is able to fend off competition from US competitors such as Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.
In pure PFI work, Herbert Smith rivals Linklaters for the top slot, followed by Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Denton Hall and Freshfields. Denton Hall and Wilde Sapte appear in both rankings as strong, growing practices with considerable PFI expertise. Stan Gniadkowski and Bruce Johnston of Wilde Sapte were recommended for their PFI work and Ellen Gates of Denton Hall was also highly rated.
| Leading Commercial Property Firms London |
|
Linklaters & Paines,
Nabarro Nathanson
Ashurst Morris Crisp, Berwin Leighton
SJ Berwin & Co, Clifford Chance,
Freshfields, Herbert Smith,
Lovell White Durrant
|
| Highly Regarded Firms – London Large firms (100+) |
| Cameron McKenna, Denton Hall, DJ Freeman, Norton Rose, Rowe & Maw, Simmons & Simmons, Titmuss Sainer Dechert, Travers Smith Braithwaite
Allen & Overy, Dibb Lupton Alsop, Eversheds, Frere Cholmeley Bischoff,Lawrence Graham, Macfarlanes,Richards Butler, Slaughter & May, Stephenson Harwood, Taylor Joynson, Garrett, Theodore Goddard
|
| Highly Regarded Firms: London Medium firms (30-100) |
|
Forsyte Saunders Kerman, Gouldens, Manches & Co, Maxwell Batley, Nicholson Graham & Jones, Paisner & Co
Boodle Hatfield, Field Fisher, Waterhouse, Finers, Fladgate Fielder,Hill Taylor Dickinson, Lewis Silkin,Mishcon de Reya, Olswang, Speechly Bircham, Wedlake Bell
|
| Top 10 Commercial Property Lawyers |
Teddy Bourne, Clifford Chance
Philip Bretherton, Berwin Leighton
Robert Finch, Linklaters & Paines
Steven Fogel, Titmuss Sainer Dechert
Lawrence Heller, Berwin Leighton
Geoffrey Lander, Nabarro Nathanson
Geoffrey Le Pard, Freshfields
David Lloyd, Linklaters & Paines
Ian Nisse, Ashurst Morris Crisp
Laurence Rutman, Ashurst Morris Crisp
|
| Leading Firms: South West |
|
Burges Salmon, Veale Wasborough
Bond Pearce,
Michelmores,
Osborne Clarke
Bevan Ashford, Clarke Willmott &
Clarke, Crawford Owen,
Lyons Davidson
|
| Leading Firms: Midlands |
|
Wragge & Co
Edge & Ellison, Eversheds
Pinsent Curtis
|
| Leading Firms: North West |
|
Addleshaw Booth & Co, Cobbetts,
Dibb Lupton Alsop, Eversheds,
Halliwell Landau
Bullivant Jones & Co, Davies Wallis
Foyster, Field Cunningham & Co,
Slater Heelis, Weightmans
Bermans Cuff Roberts, Vaudreys
|
| Leading Firms: North East |
|
Addleshaw Booth & Co, Eversheds
Dipp Lupton Alsop, Dickinson Dees,
Walker Morris
Hammond Suddards, Pinsent Curtis
|
| Leading Firms: Wales |
|
Edwards Geldard, Eversheds
Hugh James, Morgan Bruce
Berry Smith, Palser Grossman
|
| Leading Firms: Scotland |
|
Dundas & Wilson CS, McGrigor
Donald,
Maclay Murray & Spens, Shepherd &
Wedderburn WS, Steedman Ramage WS
Brodies WS, W&J Burness WS,
Semple Fraser WS, Tods Murray WS
|
| Leading Firms: Northern Ireland |
| >
Carson & McDowell, Cleaver Fulton &
Rankin, Elliott Duffy Garrett, Johns
Elliot, L’Estange & Brett, Tughan & Co
C&J Black, McKinty & Wright
Hewitt & Gilpin, C&H Jefferson,
Johnsons, Kearney Sefton, Mills Selig,
TM Heron & Son
|
| Leading Firms: PFI London |
|
Herbert Smith, Linklaters & Paines
Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance,
Denton Hall, Freshfields
Cameron McKenna, Lovell White,
Durrant, Norton Rose, Wilde Sapte
|
| Leading Firms: PFI Midlands & East Anglia |
|
Dibb Lupton Alsop, Pinsent Curtis
Wragge & Co
Edge & Ellison, Mills & Reeve
|
| Leading Firms: PFI South West & Wales |
|
Bevan Ashford
Morgan Bruce
Veale Wasborough
|
| Leading Firms: PFI North |
|
Addleshaw Booth & Co, Pinsent Curtis
Eversheds
|
| Leading Firms: PFI Scotland |
|
Dundas & Wilson CS, MacRoberts,
McClure Naismith, McGrigor Donald
Maclay Murray & Spens,
Shepherd & Wedderburn WS
W&J Burness WS
|
The Chambers Directory of Leading Law Firms is available from Biblios Distribution, Star Road, Partridge Green, West Sussex RH13 8LD (01403 710971; fax 01403 711143), priced £40.
This year’s league tables of commercial property law firms and lawyers show Linklaters & Paines coming out on top.
Amanda Seidl analyses the results.
Linklaters & Paines, described as “the Rolls-Royce of the legal commercial property world” by its peers, has been voted the top commercial property law firm in London, according to Chambers Directory of Leading Law Firms 1997-98, published next week. Linklaters narrowly beat Nabarro Nathanson to the top slot, reversing last year’s positions, but Nabarros, which is in the throes of reorganisation, is expected to resume its leading position next year.
Linklaters’ clients include Royal Sun Alliance, Lend Lease, MEPC and LPUT. Its high-profile work over the past 12 months included involvement in major City HQ developments for ABN Amro, Liffe and DMG; acting for Lend Lease on the refinancing of its Bluewater shopping centre in Kent; and advising SPP in the sale of the Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham.
Nabarro Nathanson, with 36 partners and 111 fee-earners, has the larger property team of the two. It has undergone considerable restructuring in the past year, which, in the view of those interviewed by Chambers’s researchers, affected its performance.
Clients include Slough Estates, Capital & Counties and Land Securities. It was involved in several large property transactions: the purchase of Royal Brompton Hospital for Northacre; the funding of Clockhouse Place at Bedfont Lakes near Heathrow for Hanover Property Trust; and the sale of 27 properties by Haslemere Estates to Hemingway Properties.
Ashurst Morris Crisp and Berwin Leighton were ranked close behind Linklaters and Nabarro, with five big firms – SJ Berwin & Co, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Herbert Smith and Lovell White Durrant – all ranked in the top 10. The last two acted on such high-profile deals as the sales of the MOD married quarters estate and of the DSS estate. Though the large firms dominated the top ranks in London, specialist practice Maxwell Batley was cited for the quality of its work.
Chambers conducted more than 100 interviews with lawyers and their clients to come up with the leading practices and individuals for its annual directory, which covers all the main areas of law. The recovery of the property market made a difference to the rankings this year as firms strong in insolvency work lost ground to practices specialising in development work and finance. Planning specialists such as Berwin Leighton and Herbert Smith have moved up the rankings as the amount of development work increases. The boom in leisure and retail development, increased investment interest and progress in the Private Finance Initiative have led to much greater volumes of work across all sectors and a higher rating for firms involved in those sectors.
Not surprisingly, the top 10 property lawyers mostly belong to firms featured in the top ranks. Geoffrey Lander of Nabarro and Robert Finch and David Lloyd of Linklaters are familiar names in the top 10, but Teddy Bourne of Clifford Chance has been elevated from the “also rans”. He puts his promotion down to his chairmanship of the Investment Property Forum’s working party on streamlining commercial property transactions and to Clifford Chance’s expertise in the hotel, retail and leisure sectors, PFI and real estate finance. During the past year, Clifford Chance acted for Canary Wharf in Citibank’s forward purchase of its new headquarters and for Burford Group on preletting the Finchley Road retail and leisure development in north London.
Risk of understaffing
Ashurst Morris Crisp’s Laurence Rutman and Ian Nisse are among the top 10 individuals, reflecting the firm’s high standing in the league tables. Managing partner Ian Nisse was singled out for his excellence and enters the top 10 individuals rank for the first time, but his small team of 11 partners and 36 assistants is now so busy that it risks becoming understaffed.
Berwin Leighton, ranked equal third with Ashurst in the top 10 firms, has two leading individuals: Philip Bretherton and Lawrence Heller. A frequent contributor to Estates Gazette, Heller is something of a media personality, editing Longman’s Practical Commercial Precedents and contributing to BBC Select/Legal Network Television. Berwin Leighton is widely thought to be pushing hard on the heels of Linklaters and Nabarro and is well known as a City deal-maker for clients such as British Land, Tesco, Prudential and CIN La Salle.
The smallest property team of the top 10 firms, with just seven partners and 14 assistants, SJ Berwin & Co, has raised its profile through a substantial increase in its institutional work. It acted for British Land in its joint venture with Great Universal Stores and for J Sainsbury Developments in its sale of seven retail parks to Grantchester.
London firms tend to dominate the South East so that small firms based in the M25 towns did not feature strongly in Chambers’s research. Although no leading firms for the Home Counties made the top 10, Woolastons in Chelmsford, Linnells in Oxford, Blake Lapthorn in Fareham, Donne Mileham & Haddock in Brighton, Hepherd Winstanley & Pugh in Southampton, Rawlinson & Butler in Crawley, Thomas Eggar Verrall Bowles in Horsham and Thomson Snell & Passmore in Tunbridge Wells were all highly regarded.
In the South West, Burges Salmon and Veale Wasborough, based in Bristol, dominated the field. Veale Wasborough was recommended as being not only excellent technically but also very approachable and friendly. Runner-up Bond Pearce, based in Plymouth and Exeter, has carved a niche in the minerals, energy and waste sectors. It shared second place with Exeter firm Michelmores’ team of seven, which is strong on retail work, and with Bristol-based Osborne Clark, which is described as the “Freshfields of the region”.
Clarke Willmott & Clark of Taunton, Crawford Owen of Bristol, and Lyons Davidson of Bristol all received high ratings, as did Bevan Ashford of Bristol.
The rest of the country sees the giant Eversheds consistently in the top rankings. It is described as “a class act” by its rivals. In Wales, Eversheds and Edwards Geldard stay at the top, closely followed by Hugh James and Morgan Bruce.
Wragge & Co is still considered to be the best in the Midlands, followed by Eversheds and Edge & Ellison. Wragge’s David Askin is ranked as the top individual alongside Adrian Bland of Eversheds, and the two firms have shared some of the most prestigious Midlands transactions over the past year. While Wragge acted for PowerGen on the 364ha (900 acre) Hams Hall rail-linked distribution park, Eversheds advised on the Daventry International Railfreight Terminal in Northamptonshire.
Eversheds also scores highly in the North West, sharing joint first place with Addleshaw Booth & Co, Cobbetts, Dibb Lupton & Alsop and Halliwell Landau, and in East Anglia, where it is rated alongside Hewitson Becke & Shaw and Mills & Reeve.
The picture is similar in the North East, where Eversheds once again tops the charts with Addleshaw Booth & Co. Dibb Lupton Alsop, Dickson Dees and Walker Morris are close behind, followed by Hammond Suddards and Pinsent Curtis.
The situation is also clear-cut in Scotland, where Dundas & Wilson and McGrigor Donald are ahead of the field.
The growing importance of PFI as a subsector of the property market for lawyers is reflected by, for the first time, a separate business area in the directory. The sector is closely linked to international project finance, a skill likened by one lawyer to “herding cats”, so it is no surprise that the same names appear in both areas of practice.
Linklaters & Paines appears in the top slot in both categories with Bruce White being named as “the best PFI man of the lot”. Like its competitors Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance, Linklaters has a strong international presence in project finance. Allen & Overy, meanwhile, has one of the strongest major projects practices in the world, and is able to fend off competition from US competitors such as Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.
In pure PFI work, Herbert Smith rivals Linklaters for the top slot, followed by Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Denton Hall and Freshfields. Denton Hall and Wilde Sapte appear in both rankings as strong, growing practices with considerable PFI expertise. Stan Gniadkowski and Bruce Johnston of Wilde Sapte were recommended for their PFI work and Ellen Gates of Denton Hall was also highly rated.
Leading Commercial Property Firms London
Linklaters & Paines,
Nabarro Nathanson
Ashurst Morris Crisp, Berwin Leighton
SJ Berwin & Co, Clifford Chance,
Freshfields, Herbert Smith,
Lovell White Durrant
Highly Regarded Firms – London Large firms (100+)
Cameron McKenna, Denton Hall, DJ Freeman, Norton Rose, Rowe & Maw, Simmons & Simmons, Titmuss Sainer Dechert, Travers Smith Braithwaite
Allen & Overy, Dibb Lupton Alsop, Eversheds, Frere Cholmeley Bischoff,Lawrence Graham, Macfarlanes,Richards Butler, Slaughter & May, Stephenson Harwood, Taylor Joynson, Garrett, Theodore Goddard
Highly Regarded Firms: London Medium firms (30-100)
Forsyte Saunders Kerman, Gouldens, Manches & Co, Maxwell Batley, Nicholson Graham & Jones, Paisner & Co
Boodle Hatfield, Field Fisher, Waterhouse, Finers, Fladgate Fielder,Hill Taylor Dickinson, Lewis Silkin,Mishcon de Reya, Olswang, Speechly Bircham, Wedlake Bell
Top 10 Commercial Property Lawyers
Teddy Bourne, Clifford Chance
Philip Bretherton, Berwin Leighton
Robert Finch, Linklaters & Paines
Steven Fogel, Titmuss Sainer Dechert
Lawrence Heller, Berwin Leighton
Geoffrey Lander, Nabarro Nathanson
Geoffrey Le Pard, Freshfields
David Lloyd, Linklaters & Paines
Ian Nisse, Ashurst Morris Crisp
Laurence Rutman, Ashurst Morris Crisp
Leading Firms: South West
Burges Salmon, Veale Wasborough
Bond Pearce,
Michelmores,
Osborne Clarke
Bevan Ashford, Clarke Willmott &
Clarke, Crawford Owen,
Lyons Davidson
Leading Firms: Midlands
Wragge & Co
Edge & Ellison, Eversheds
Pinsent Curtis
Leading Firms: North West
Addleshaw Booth & Co, Cobbetts,
Dibb Lupton Alsop, Eversheds,
Halliwell Landau
Bullivant Jones & Co, Davies Wallis
Foyster, Field Cunningham & Co,
Slater Heelis, Weightmans
Bermans Cuff Roberts, Vaudreys
Leading Firms: North East
Addleshaw Booth & Co, Eversheds
Dipp Lupton Alsop, Dickinson Dees,
Walker Morris
Hammond Suddards, Pinsent Curtis
Leading Firms: Wales
Edwards Geldard, Eversheds
Hugh James, Morgan Bruce
Berry Smith, Palser Grossman
Leading Firms: Scotland
Dundas & Wilson CS, McGrigor
Donald,
Maclay Murray & Spens, Shepherd &
Wedderburn WS, Steedman Ramage WS
Brodies WS, W&J Burness WS,
Semple Fraser WS, Tods Murray WS
Leading Firms: Northern Ireland
>
Carson & McDowell, Cleaver Fulton &
Rankin, Elliott Duffy Garrett, Johns
Elliot, L’Estange & Brett, Tughan & Co
C&J Black, McKinty & Wright
Hewitt & Gilpin, C&H Jefferson,
Johnsons, Kearney Sefton, Mills Selig,
TM Heron & Son
Leading Firms: PFI London
Herbert Smith, Linklaters & Paines
Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance,
Denton Hall, Freshfields
Cameron McKenna, Lovell White,
Durrant, Norton Rose, Wilde Sapte
Leading Firms: PFI Midlands & East Anglia
Dibb Lupton Alsop, Pinsent Curtis
Wragge & Co
Edge & Ellison, Mills & Reeve
Leading Firms: PFI South West & Wales
Bevan Ashford
Morgan Bruce
Veale Wasborough
Leading Firms: PFI North
Addleshaw Booth & Co, Pinsent Curtis
Eversheds
Leading Firms: PFI Scotland
Dundas & Wilson CS, MacRoberts,
McClure Naismith, McGrigor Donald
Maclay Murray & Spens,
Shepherd & Wedderburn WS
W&J Burness WS
The Chambers Directory of Leading Law Firms is available from Biblios Distribution, Star Road, Partridge Green, West Sussex RH13 8LD (01403 710971; fax 01403 711143), priced £40.
