LONDON – July 22, 2024 – Greenberg Traurig, LLP is celebrating the 15-year anniversary of the launch of the firm’s London office. Since opening its doors in July 2009, the office has grown from a team of three lawyers – including Paul Maher, now a firm vice chair, and Fiona Adams, managing shareholder of the London office and co-chair of the Global Corporate Practice – to more than 200 employees, including over 140 fee earners.
Greenberg Traurig Executive Chairman Richard A. Rosenbaum said, “Our London office has had a remarkable journey since 2009. With the support of many valued contributors, I am proud of what we have achieved in London and excited for what we continue to build.”
“Our success over the past 15 years is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our talented team, as well as the trust and loyalty of our clients,” Maher said. “Our London office has seen an average of 30% headcount growth year-on-year since 2009, which is a fantastic achievement. Our 200-employee-strong London team provides clients with a full-service, multidisciplinary offering that encompasses the firm’s core strengths in Corporate/M&A, Real Estate, and Dispute Resolution, complemented by our market-leading Funds, Finance, Restructuring, Capital Markets, Tax, and Regulatory practices, among others.”
Adams added, “As we look ahead to our next 15 years in London, we remain focused on growth and innovation. The firm will continue to expand its services and to attract top legal talent to better serve our clients. We are excited about the future and the opportunities it presents.”
Headline Achievements in London
- Expansion from seven active employees (including three lawyers) in 2009 to 204 active employees in 2024 – an average year-on-year growth of 30%.
- Over 10,000 individual client instructions since 2009.
- Adams won Management Partner of the Year and the firm was shortlisted for U.S. Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2023, as well as being named a finalist for International Firm of the Year at the British Legal Awards 2023.
- The London office is ranked in 30 categories, with almost 70 individual recognitions, in Legal 500 UK 2024 and Chambers & Partners UK 2024. Among other highlights:
- three shareholders appear in the 2024 Legal 500 Hall of Fame – Maher and Adams for M&A: Lower Mid-Market Deals (£100m-£750m), and John Houghton, chair of the firm's London Finance & Restructuring Practice and co-vice chair of its Global Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice, for Restructuring and Insolvency; and
- Maher is ranked in Chambers & Partners as an Eminent Practitioner for Corporate/M&A: £100-800m.
- Diversity is more than a core value: diversity is in the firm’s DNA. Key London statistics include:
- fee earner gender diversity is 50/50, and 56/44 in favour of women across the London office as a whole;
- ethnic diversity increased by around 20% in 2022; and
- the firm is in the top 10 firms with the highest proportion of state school-educated lawyers in the UK and are second on the partner ranking, with 65% of UK partnership state-school educated (Law.com International, 2022).
Team Growth: Average 30% Increase Year-on-Year
The London office’s largest year-on-year increases in employee headcount were across 2016-2017 (over 71%) and across 2020-2021 (over 52%). In 2017, a team that included six real estate-focused shareholders – among them Steven Cowins, co-chair of the firm’s Global Real Estate Funds Practice – joined the London office from King & Wood Mallesons’ (KWM). In 2020, Masoud Zabeti, co-chair of the Global Litigation Practice, and shareholder Mohammed Khamisa KC joined from Mishcon de Reya, and were subsequently followed in 2021 by a total of 18 lawyers including six shareholders, one of the largest ever non-merger moves among London law firms.
Cowins said, “Real estate is a cornerstone of our firm and we are a recognised industry leader. Since joining Greenberg Traurig, we have built a multidisciplinary real estate offering in London that spans corporate, funds, finance, tax, construction, and property litigation, and services clients from all over the globe.”
Zabeti added, “Our London Dispute Resolution Practice brings together an experienced team of more than 40 lawyers advising clients internationally across a range of sectors in dealing with all areas of risk. We are supported by a global team of more than 900 incredible litigators. Working together with common purpose and common achievement, we are privileged to have this opportunity to build upon the many successes of the London office. None of this success could be achieved without the trust and confidence our clients place in us to have the privilege of representing them, for which we are extremely grateful.”
Other lateral hires include Houghton in September 2021, and more recently the following:
- Duncan Hubbard – Shareholder, Real Estate Finance (June 2024)
- Sophie Allen – Shareholder, Tax (May 2024)
- Luke Lado – Shareholder, Banking & Financial Services (November 2023)
- Shashank Krishna – Shareholder, Corporate (June 2023)
- Sierra M. Taylor – Shareholder, Banking & Financial Services (April 2023)
- Tim Dolan – Shareholder, Financial Regulatory & Compliance (January 2023)
- Rebecca Meads – Shareholder, White Collar Defense & Investigations (April 2022)
- Daniyal Ansari – Shareholder, Real Estate Finance (March 2022)
A Legacy of Excellence
Over the past 15 years, the London office has handled over 10,000 individual client instructions, ranging from billion-pound M&A transactions to Supreme Court-level litigation. In the past year, this includes:
- Multinational automotive manufacturer: Advised on the negotiation of a market-leading joint venture (JV) for the development of a generation of fully electric vans and associated services.
- Admiral Acquisition: Advised on its IPO on the London Stock Exchange raising US$550 million, the largest IPO capital raise and one of only a handful of IPOs on the main market in 2023.
- BlackRock: Represented one of the world’s largest fund managers on its JV with a sovereign wealth fund to support the development of the UK’s life sciences industry through the creation of “Tribeca King’s Cross,” a £1 billion life sciences scheme in London’s Knowledge Quarter.
- Greater Manchester Pension Fund: Advised the UK’s largest local authority pension fund on its investment into the UK's pre-eminent innovation property platform, Bruntwood SciTech, which has £1.5 billion in assets across nine campuses.
- Heim Global Investor AS (Heimstaden): Advising on the formation of its residential development fund targeting commitments of £700 million.
- Blackstone and its portfolio company QTS: Advised on the acquisition of a 250-acre+ site in Northumberland to enable the potential development of a hyperscale data center campus.
- Prezzo Group: Acted in relation to its ground-breaking, successful financial and leasehold estate restructuring, implemented by way of a restructuring plan under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006.
- Fürst: Represented a senior creditor to Fürst, a large multipurpose property development in Berlin. This is a highly complex €1 billion matter with numerous lenders in various debt stacks. The UK High Court recently sanctioned a Part 26A restructuring plan.
- Crane Bank: Advising the Ugandan bank and its shareholders in relation a US$200 million+ Commercial Court claim following measures taken by the Central Bank of Uganda as part of a corrupt scheme to take control of the bank and misappropriate its assets. The firm was recently successful for its clients in the Court of Appeal in resisting a jurisdiction challenge advanced on the basis of the foreign act of state doctrine.
- Tradition Financial Services: Representing one of the world’s leading inter-dealer brokers in defending a claim brought against various financial institutions following VAT carousel fraud in the trading of carbon credits. We have had successes for our client in the Commercial Court and Court of Appeal, and the final legal issues will be heard by the Supreme Court in December 2024.
About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2750 attorneys in 47 locations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The firm is a 2022 BTI “Highly Recommended Law Firm” for superior client service and is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law Global 100 and NLJ 500. Greenberg Traurig is Mansfield Rule 6.0 Certified Plus by The Diversity Lab. The firm is recognized for powering its U.S. offices with 100% renewable energy as certified by the Center for Resource Solutions Green-e® Energy program and is a member of the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership Program. The firm is known for its philanthropic giving, innovation, diversity, and pro bono. Web: www.gtlaw.com.