Leading national law firm Shoosmiths has boosted its fast-growing Yorkshire real estate team with the appointment of Matthew Lonergan as a partner and Michael Gaughan as a senior associate.
Both join from DLA Piper in Leeds, underlining Shoosmiths' ability to recruit high calibre talent from the city's top tier firms. From a standing start in December 2016, the firm's real estate team now stands at more than 30, including nine partners.
Matthew, who spent more than 23 years with DLA Piper, is a real estate litigation specialist and acts on behalf of numerous high-profile national and international clients, in particular in the retail, aviation and financial services sectors.
He has particular experience in portfolio management as well as high value cases involving rent reviews, dilapidations, service charges, forfeiture, easements and covenants, options, possession actions, insolvent tenant work and lease renewals.
Simon Meek, head of the Shoosmiths real estate team in Leeds said: "I am delighted to welcome Matt and Michael to the firm, Matt has a great profile locally and nationally as a property litigator and has bags of commercial awareness, experience and a great list of clients. He is already working on a matter for a major national retailer, so he's very much hit the ground running.
"I am sure every other major law firm in Leeds would have wanted to recruit him, so we are extremely pleased that he chose to come to Shoosmiths. Why? - Because looking after our clients and people is front and centre of everything we do.
"We are still a 'young' office - and there is an incredible energy and ambition here to create a best-in-class legal services firm for Yorkshire and the wider North."
Simon said the firm would be boosted further in the next month with the recruitment of an additional director.
"Leeds continues to be an incredibly attractive place to work - it's unquestionably a hub for exceptional legal talent.
"More broadly confidence in the regional economy and the real estate market remains strong, with no signs so far of a Brexit-related slowdown."
Reflecting its ambition of building a northern hub of legal excellence on both sides of the Pennines Shoosmiths has strengthened its real estate litigation team in Manchester with two new team members.
Solicitor Luke Holden is joining from Hill Dickinson, while paralegal Jenny Conroy has moved from another team in the firm.
Shoosmiths' aim is to become a market-leading player in UK real estate. Its national team has just won 'Legal Team of the Year' at the Estate Gazette Awards, where judges praised Shoosmiths' collaborative approach to its clients and its innovative approach to deals