By Martin Cole-
The Amsterdam office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP is undergoing an incredible expansion of its Real Estate Practice, and has seen a total of 18 lawyers leave Miscon de Reya to join the impressively sophisticated team of astute lawyers.
The legal firm which provides legal advice to help clients navigate the challenges arising from the pandemic such as distressed businesses, accessing economic stimulus funds, and the regulatory compliance and administration of COVID-19 vaccines, is vast and multi skilled in its endeavours.
It has a dedicated COVID-19 team comprising experienced attorneys across a wide spectrum of legal practices – from Health Care and Litigation, to Real Estate, Labor & Employment, and Regulatory & Compliance.
The firm is today celebrating the addition of Karen Hilwerda. Her move follows the office’s recent addition of Robert Hardy to its Antitrust Litigation & Competition Regulation Practice.
“Karen’s arrival is another significant step in the expansion of our Real Estate Practice and the continued development of the Amsterdam team overall. We look forward to additional strategic growth in 2022,” Amsterdam Co-Managing Partners Cees van Oevelen and Thomas van der Vliet said.
“We are delighted with Karen’s arrival. Her focus on representing national and international institutional investors, real estate funds, developers, governments, and end-users is very much in line with our practice and our strategy of building teams with experienced professionals,” Amsterdam Real Estate Practice Chair David van Dijk said.
“Greenberg Traurig’s international profile, its offering of wide-ranging disciplines to provide clients with optimal advice, and the firm’s tremendous drive are all reasons why the move to Greenberg Traurig is a logical choice for me,” Hilwerda said, in a statement to The Eye Of Media.Com.
Karen Hilwerda Image: Propertynl.com
Hilwerda, whose practice centers on real estate transactions, commercial leasing, and project development, joins the firm as an associate. She earned her LL.M. in Private Law, her LL.B. in Dutch Law, and her LL.B. in Notarial Law from the University of Amsterdam.
The Greenberg Traurig Real Estate Practice is a cornerstone of the firm and recognized leader in the industry, and has a diversified and comprehensive counsel for property acquisition and investment, development, management and leasing, financing, restructuring, and disposition of all asset classes of real estate.
The team draws upon the knowledge and experience of more than 450 real estate lawyers from around the world, serving clients from key markets in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia.
The group’s clientele includes a broad range of property developers, lenders, investment managers, private equity funds, REITs, and private owners. The firm’s real estate team advises clients on a variety of matters across a broad spectrum of commercial, recreational, and residential real estate, including structured equity and debt and the hybrids.
The move is said to be one of the largest non-merger moves among London law firms, creates ‘an expanded litigation, regulatory and white collar hub’ at Greenberg Traurig, the firm said.
Former Mishcon partners Kathryn Garbett, Jo Rickards, Claire Broadbelt, Annabel Thomas, Martin Shobbrook and Hannah Blom-Cooper, together with legal director Matt Hancock, joined Greenberg Traurig as ‘shareholders’, a role that is similar to partner, late last year.
A further 11 lawyers have also moved to the firm from Mishcon, joining a 20-strong disputes team built by Masoud Zabeti and Mohammed Khamisa QC – who themselves left Mishcon in 2020.
Greenberg Traurig’s executive chairman, Richard A. Rosenbaum, said the firm ‘is now able to marshal a team which matches and, in many cases, exceeds what others in the market can bring to bear’.
Rickards, who is chair of the firm’s London white collar defence and investigations practice, added that Greenberg ‘expect to announce additional hires this year, because there has been a great deal of interest in joining from the London white collar community’.
The 18 are among the latest to depart Mishcon de Reya since its proposals to float on the London Stock Exchange passed a major partner vote in September.
Karel Daele, head of Mishcon’s international arbitration practice, joined Taylor Wessing in December while dispute resolution partner Madalina-Andreea Dumitrescu left for Charles Russell Speechlys the previous month.
According to financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2021, profits at Greenberg Traurig’s UK LLP rose 28.5% to £21.6m on turnover up 22% to £44.9m.
. Greenberg also received just over £160,000 in relation to the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme, according to its accounts.