Pictured above: David Hayes (front) with colleagues from DLA
Piper's real estate team
DLA Piper has been named Property Law Firm of the Year at the
Midlands Business Insider Property Awards 2010.
David Hayes, DLA Piper's head of Birmingham real estate, said he
was "absolutely delighted" at the accolade.
Real estate works in close co-operation with the planning and
construction teams led respectively by Peter Taylor and Graeme
Bradley. In total six partners, two consultants, three legal
directors and 18 other fee earners are involved.
Despite a tough 2009 DLA Piper in the Midlands continued to act
on large scale and prestigious regeneration projects such as
advising Birmingham City Council on the redevelopment of New Street
station and Centro on claims arising from the refurbishment of Snow
Hill station.
Other significant deals were advising Britannia Building Society
on its merger with Co-operative Bank; acting for Opus Land (Burton)
in relation to the £22.6 million disposal to Boots of Opus
Axis, a 465,000 sq ft logistics warehouse in Burton on Trent; and
advising Centro, one of three key stakeholders, in the high profile
£174 million redevelopment of Wolverhampton Interchange,
which will create state of the art bus and rail stations as well as
a range of leisure and commercial buildings, due for completion
next summer.
Work was also secured from a number of new clients including
Trebor Developments, Opus Land, Palmer Capital Partners, Morgan
Advanced Ceramics, Gloucestershire PCT, West Midlands Police and
Risk Capital Partners.
The total value of significant property transactions between
July 1, 2009 and June 30 this year was £1.37 billion.
Mr Hayes said: "We have strong relationships with all our major
clients and key professional contacts within the banking,
developer, intermediary, investor and occupier community.
"To be Insider Property Law Firm of the Year requires evidence
of quality and excellence and attributes that make you stand out
from the rest.
"We believe we have achieved this through genuinely offering top
quality advice in all areas of real estate from planning and tax to
development, asset management, investment, construction and
corporate occupier work.
"This, combined with our global reach, is a unique offering
within the West Midlands market."
The awards were announced at a dinner at the Hilton Birmingham
Metropole.