Gateley Legal strengthens property and corporate offering with four partner hire

We have appointed four partners to bolster our property and corporate offerings in London and Manchester.

The latest partners include London based Marcus Wright, Shaz Sharif and Bernhard Gilbey with Dan Kendall joining our Manchester office.

These appointments follow the announcement of nine newly promoted partners by us in May. We now have a total of 162 partners across the business with a further 5 due to join in the coming months across corporate, real estate and restructuring.

Marcus Wright joins our real estate team in London following 25 years within the transactional real estate group of magic circle law firm, Clifford Chance. Wright brings extensive commercial property experience advising investors, developers, landlords and tenants on complex commercial property transactions and major development projects. This includes specialising in investment acquisitions and disposals, real estate development, forward fundings, pre-lettings and lettings.

We have also strengthened our specialist residential development team with two hires from DAC Beachcroft. Shaz Sharif joins in London and Dan Kendall has been appointed in Manchester.

Sharif spent eight years with DAC Beachcroft before joining Gateley Legal and has vast experience working with leading housebuilders and developers on high value, large-scale and complex residential, mixed-use and regeneration schemes across the country. Her expertise includes immediate and long-term strategic schemes, joint ventures, partnerships, Private Rented Sector (PRS) and Build to Rent (BTR). Sharif’s diverse experience will bolster our residential development team in the South East.

Kendall spent more than four years with DAC Beachcroft, specialising in strategic land and joint venture acquisitions, including Homes England developments and partnership schemes. In total, he has practiced for 12 years which includes experience as in-house legal counsel for Bovis Homes. Kendall was named as a Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyer 2024. His appointment will strengthen our residential development team in the North West.

Bernhard Gilbey has joined the corporate tax team in London. A former partner and global head of Tax Strategy & Benefits at Squire Patton Boggs, Gilbey has more than 25 years’ experience advising clients on a wide range of domestic and international corporate tax matters including international tax strategies, employee benefits and executive compensation and tax structuring for exiting shareholders. More recently Gilbey was founder and CEO of Ligdol Consulting which provides advice to SMEs in the healthcare sector on fundraising, overseas market entry strategies and commercialising medical device innovation.