Squire Patton Boggs has made its first UK partner hire since the May announcement that Squire Sanders would unite with Patton Boggs, recruiting former Dundas & Wilson partner Andrew Walker to head its burgeoning UK real estate litigation team.
Walker left Dundas in January, just a year after joining, ahead of the leading Scottish firm’s merger with Walker’s former firm CMS Cameron McKenna, where he launched the real estate disputes team in 1993. He will now head up a growing UK real estate litigation team at Squire Patton Boggs, which was bolstered by the arrival of Alison Hardy from Wragge & Co in January.
Walker is the latest partner hired into Squire’s City real estate practice group so far in 2014, with Gary Paddison and Rachel Orton, who spent six months at the London Development Agency in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, having joined as partners from DLA Piper in February.
Walker will be based in Birmingham, where the firm recently advised on the £450m redevelopment of Paradise Circus, a flagship site within Birmingham city centre’s enterprise zone. The firm promoted Birmingham-based real estate lawyer Neil Taylor to partner earlier this, taking the number of real estate partners in the firm’s Birmingham office to five.
Nick Green, managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs in Birmingham, said: ‘Andrew is an experienced, well connected real estate litigator who will expand the capabilities of our litigation and real estate practices in Birmingham and across the UK.’
Simon Miller, Squire Patton Boggs’ UK head of litigation, added: ‘With Andrew at the helm, supported by senior real estate barrister, Patrick Walker, Alison Hardy and Helen Hoath, we will have a team with unrivalled experience in providing client- focused solutions in this important practice area.’
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk