With 24 partners on the market following King & Wood Mallesons‘ (KWM) decision to axe 15% of its European and Middle Eastern practice, Ashurst has picked up real estate partners Darren Rogers and Patrick Williams.
Rogers, who made partner at what was then SJ Berwin five years ago, has joined Ashurst’s real estate team as a partner. He moves with Patrick Williams, who was promoted less than a year ago when KWM made up only two London lawyers from a 36-strong round.
Rogers’ clients include CarVal Investors, an investment arm of US industrial giant Cargill, online retailer Amazon and the real estate arm of investment manager Invesco. He and Williams have also advised longstanding client of the firm, British Land, which named KWM as one of eight go-to law firms when it issued its first formal legal panel at the end of last year.
Rogers said he was ‘delighted to be joining Ashurst’ as it has ‘a clear strategic commitment to the built environment sector’.
Ashurst global head of real estate Hugh Lumby, added: ‘Built environment is a key strategic focus for Ashurst. Darren and Patrick are highly experienced lawyers with excellent reputations and strong client relationships which complement that business and demonstrate once again Ashurst’s commitment to a market leading real estate practice.
He added: ‘They also bring particular experience in the Asian markets and with the increasing globalisation of real estate and projected increase of capital flows into Europe from Asia, Middle East and the US, Darren and Patrick are a perfect fit for our leading global practice.’
While Legal Business understands the departures of Rogers and Williams are part of the restructuring announced in March, earlier this month KWM lost nine European partners in a week as a six-partner private equity team in Paris moved to Goodwin Procter and three partners left the London office for Mishcon de Reya, Dentons and Goodwin Procter. The moves were not part of the restructuring of the legacy SJ Berwin practice.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk
Read more analysis of King & Wood Mallesons in the comment piece: ‘KWM – ultimately a question of confidence’