National law firm Irwin Mitchell has announced that as of 1 May 2014, real estate partner Rob Thompson will take over as head of the London real estate team from current head, Jon Vivian. 

Jon Vivian will continue as a senior real estate partner in London and will concentrate on his role as relationship partner for a number of key strategic clients and will target new client opportunities for the firm.

Rob Thompson was one of the four partners in the 20-strong real estate team that came over with Jon from SJ Berwin in November 2010 to found Irwin Mitchell’s London real estate practice and he has increasingly taken a leadership role in the department. The team is well known in the market and acts for a wide variety of banks, funds and leading property companies.

The team brought a number of significant clients to Irwin Mitchell, including Prestbury, Max Property Group, Gazeley, British Land, Redevco, Raven Russia and Honda.

Rob himself is well known in the property industry, specialising in investment and development work and complex corporate real estate and finance transactions both in the UK and abroad, advising in the office, retail, logistics and high-end residential sectors. 

Rob has also acted on the real estate finance side for lenders such as HSBC as well as a wide variety of borrowers and recently led the team advising on the acquisition of the Eurohypo loan book by Wells Fargo/Lone Star – a £4bn commercial real estate loan book, which was one of the largest European commercial real estate debt transactions ever.

He said: ‘We are indebted to Jon for his leadership and guidance in helping us to build up a substantial real estate practice at Irwin Mitchell from a virtual standing start in London. I am delighted to be taking on this role at this time, working with Jon and the other partners to build on our growth so far and our reputation in the market.

‘We have a terrific team and are well placed to drive our business forward as market conditions continue to improve. I will continue to work closely with my key clients, whilst taking on these additional responsibilities.’

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