Pictured above: Stephen Bottley (front) with James
Crellin and Peter Mitchell
Two new professionals have joined the Finance and Projects team
in the Birmingham office of international law firm DLA Piper.
Both legal director James Crellin and solicitor Peter Mitchell
have long connections with the city.
Mr Crellin has been in Birmingham all his working life while Mr
Mitchell was educated at King Edward's School in Edgbaston.
The Finance and Projects group covers all aspects of banking and
finance law.
Mr Crellin specialises in real estate finance - typically, he
advises banks and corporate borrowers on the negotiation and
agreement of facility and security documents in relation to such
deals.
He also has experience of acquisition finance and general
corporate lending.
Major transactions he has been involved in include advising
National Westminster Bank and Bank of Ireland in their refinancing
of a UK plc housebuilder, acting for Bank of Scotland and other
banks in a c£200m funding transaction involving a major
Midlands Plc, and acting for Birmingham Mailbox Limited on the
financing of The Cube development in Birmingham.
He spent four years as a solicitor and then associate at
Eversheds in Birmingham including a three-month secondment to the
Paris office in 2008.
Mr Crellin trained and qualified with Pinsent Masons in
Birmingham. He lives in Harborne.
He said: "This is a new and challenging role - DLA Piper has a
big reputation and I am very excited to have joined the firm."
Mr Mitchell is newly qualified, having done his training in the
Birmingham office including a six-month spell with the Finance and
Projects team.
He will be working predominantly in the leveraged finance
group.
During his training period he spent six months on secondment to
a major construction company and a similar period in the corporate
department of DLA Piper in Moscow.
He studied Law and German at the University of East Anglia
before completing an LLM in German law at the University of
Trier.
Brian Woolcock, head of the Finance and Projects team in
Birmingham, said: "We are very pleased to have attracted such
capable new recruits.
"I am sure that both James and Peter will prove major
assets."