Member Article

Gateley Plc establishes real estate presence in Leeds

The UK’s first publicly-quoted commercial law firm, Gateley Plc, has further increased its offering in the Leeds legal market with the hire of its first Real Estate partner, Phil Gregory. The firm has also announced three other key appointments in corporate, residential development and dispute resolution to strengthen existing teams.

With 15 years’ experience as a commercial property lawyer, Phil joins the firm from Gordons, where he spent 14 years including eight as partner; and where he boasted Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, the Glen Dimplex Group and Wilton Developments Limited amongst his clients.

In his new role with Gateley Plc, Phil will be tasked with building the firm’s Real Estate offer in the Yorkshire market with a focus on all aspects of commercial property.

Commenting on his appointment, Phil said: “I am excited to be joining a national practice like Gateley Plc. The opportunity to build a Real Estate team here in Leeds was one I just could not say no to.”

“The firm has big plans for its Leeds office and I am enthusiastic about helping Gateley Plc to continue the impressive growth it has enjoyed in the city since opening the office in 2012.”

Building on this and expanding the firm’s specialist international corporate offering to the Leeds market, Sandip Khroud joins Gateley Plc from Irwin Mitchell as senior associate. Sandip specialises in advising businesses on M&A, private equity and PLC client matters relating to both Europe and Asia.

Sandip sits on the Advisory Board of the National Asian Business Association and has worked in Mumbai and Delhi, helping to set up joint ventures between companies from Yorkshire and across the UK.

His appointment highlights Gateley’s co-ordinated strategy of focusing on international inbound and outbound work for the benefit of Leeds and Yorkshire, with each member of the corporate team having expertise in different regions.

Gateley Plc has also strengthened two of its teams with associate appointments. Keelie Evans joins the firm’s Residential Development Unit as an associate. With over 20 lawyers and a team of 50 nationally, Gateley Plc’s Residential Development team is one of the largest stand-alone teams of its kind in the UK. The firm acts, regionally and nationally, for all of the top 10 and 16 of the top 20 housebuilders in the country.

In addition to Keelie, Peter Barr has been appointed to the commercial dispute resolution team (CDR) as an associate. Peter joins from Watson Burton LLP and will be working closely with CDR partner, Andrew Johnson, to further enhance the team’s growing reputation.

William Ballmann, Corporate Recovery partner and head of the Leeds office, said: “When we established Gateley in Leeds in 2012 we said we had plans to develop the office into a full service commercial law practice. We have grown at a rapid rate in four years and are really proud of everything we have achieved, now offering services that include corporate, corporate recovery, residential development, dispute resolution, regulatory and now real estate.

“Having started with just five people in 2012, we now have well over 40 members of the team in our Leeds office and we are looking forward to building on this growth and our presence in the region.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gateley plc .