As part of the continued expansion of its finance offering in London, leading global law firm Baker McKenzie has hired Oliver Jefferies from Stephenson Harwood. Oliver will join the Banking & Finance practice as a Partner in London, to add further bench-strength to the firm's Real Estate Finance offering.
With over 12 years in practice advising some of the industry's best known lenders and sponsors in complex real estate finance transactions, Oliver brings a wealth of experience advising on a wide variety of financings through all parts of the economic cycle and across the capital stack.
Matthew Dening, Global Chair of Baker McKenzie’s Banking & Finance practice group, commented: “Oliver has an outstanding reputation in real estate finance. The global COVID pandemic has created new opportunities both in the distressed markets for asset classes that have been badly affected such as hotels, hospitality and retail and also in markets for asset classes that have benefitted from the crisis such as logistics, healthcare and technology related real estate assets. This has resulted in extensive activity for law firms and is predicted by many industry experts to continue even more strongly into 2022 and beyond. Oliver’s expertise in this area will be invaluable to Baker McKenzie.”
London-based REF specialist partner, Sebastien Marcelin-Rice, commented: “At Baker McKenzie, we are able to offer a compelling proposition to major Real Estate investors, lenders, developers and owners, across equity investments and acquisitions, debt financing, real estate, tax and regulatory requirements. This offering can be leveraged to a far greater extent through our substantial EMEA and global networks to drive profitable revenue growth and deliver high performance solutions to our clients. The addition of Oliver to our team will further add to the expertise of the London practice and allow us to continue to compete successfully with other leading London real estate finance practices as we continue to grow our capabilities even further. I look forward to working closely with Oliver and growing the business together.”
London Managing Partner Ed Poulton added: "We are very excited about Oliver joining our Banking & Finance group in London. A strategic objective of the team is developing further real estate investment business from our Bank, Direct Lender and PE RE Sponsor relationships across the EMEA region and ensuring we can deliver over and beyond our clients' demands in this space. Central to this is building and developing greater bench strength in London. Oliver has a strong track record in doing deals in this sector and his hiring is further evidence that we will continue to grow our transactional partnership in London and other key markets, both laterally and organically, following on from other recent strategic hires.”
The hire of Oliver Jefferies comes after a number of recent lateral appointments including, Stephanie Pantelidaki, who joined as Head of Financial Services Transfer Pricing in the Firm's tax practice from PwC, Leverage Finance partner Ben Wilkinson who joined from White & Case, M&A partner Nick Rainsford from Ashurst, private equity partner Justin Hutchinson from Kirkland & Ellis, Adam Eastell a partner from Slaughter and May and Nick Bryans, also from Ashurst.
Baker McKenzie is a transactional powerhouse with over 2,500 deal lawyers and expertise in over 46 countries. We excel in cross-border deals – over 60% of our deals are multi-jurisdictional. We are global and local, combining money market sophistication with local excellence. Our real estate finance practice in London has advised on more than 40 transactions for a combined debt value in excess of €3.6 billion in the last 12 months across numerous jurisdictions and asset classes.
With over 12 years in practice advising some of the industry's best known lenders and sponsors in complex real estate finance transactions, Oliver brings a wealth of experience advising on a wide variety of financings through all parts of the economic cycle and across the capital stack.
Matthew Dening, Global Chair of Baker McKenzie’s Banking & Finance practice group, commented: “Oliver has an outstanding reputation in real estate finance. The global COVID pandemic has created new opportunities both in the distressed markets for asset classes that have been badly affected such as hotels, hospitality and retail and also in markets for asset classes that have benefitted from the crisis such as logistics, healthcare and technology related real estate assets. This has resulted in extensive activity for law firms and is predicted by many industry experts to continue even more strongly into 2022 and beyond. Oliver’s expertise in this area will be invaluable to Baker McKenzie.”
London-based REF specialist partner, Sebastien Marcelin-Rice, commented: “At Baker McKenzie, we are able to offer a compelling proposition to major Real Estate investors, lenders, developers and owners, across equity investments and acquisitions, debt financing, real estate, tax and regulatory requirements. This offering can be leveraged to a far greater extent through our substantial EMEA and global networks to drive profitable revenue growth and deliver high performance solutions to our clients. The addition of Oliver to our team will further add to the expertise of the London practice and allow us to continue to compete successfully with other leading London real estate finance practices as we continue to grow our capabilities even further. I look forward to working closely with Oliver and growing the business together.”
London Managing Partner Ed Poulton added: "We are very excited about Oliver joining our Banking & Finance group in London. A strategic objective of the team is developing further real estate investment business from our Bank, Direct Lender and PE RE Sponsor relationships across the EMEA region and ensuring we can deliver over and beyond our clients' demands in this space. Central to this is building and developing greater bench strength in London. Oliver has a strong track record in doing deals in this sector and his hiring is further evidence that we will continue to grow our transactional partnership in London and other key markets, both laterally and organically, following on from other recent strategic hires.”
The hire of Oliver Jefferies comes after a number of recent lateral appointments including, Stephanie Pantelidaki, who joined as Head of Financial Services Transfer Pricing in the Firm's tax practice from PwC, Leverage Finance partner Ben Wilkinson who joined from White & Case, M&A partner Nick Rainsford from Ashurst, private equity partner Justin Hutchinson from Kirkland & Ellis, Adam Eastell a partner from Slaughter and May and Nick Bryans, also from Ashurst.
Baker McKenzie is a transactional powerhouse with over 2,500 deal lawyers and expertise in over 46 countries. We excel in cross-border deals – over 60% of our deals are multi-jurisdictional. We are global and local, combining money market sophistication with local excellence. Our real estate finance practice in London has advised on more than 40 transactions for a combined debt value in excess of €3.6 billion in the last 12 months across numerous jurisdictions and asset classes.
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