The ‘football managers’ of the legal world – why real estate PE partners are in high demand

Over the past 18 months, around 20 real estate private equity and real estate finance partners have switched firms in London.

The lateral moves come as firms bulk up their PE offerings in the City to capitalise on increasing investment in real estate assets by buyout houses.

Latham & Watkins has made the biggest play for talent in the space, adding a trio of finance partners from A&O Shearman earlier this year, including real estate finance partners David Oppenheimer and David Varne as well as high yield specialist Lucy Oddy.

The hiring, which comes as the firm also saw the departure of real estate finance partner Jeremy Trinder to Sidley in London earlier this year, complements its recruitment of real estate PE partner Jeremy Kenley last November from Gibson Dunn.

Explaining the motivation for his move Kenley said the decision made sense because of: ‘The natural alignment between Latham’s strength in private capital and my work for sponsors in private equity real estate.’

Kem Ihenacho, a member of Latham’s executive committee, explained the push to build capacity around real assets: ‘It’s a growing market. For a long time people just talked about private equity, but it’s much broader than that – infrastructure, growth equity, real estate, distressed assets, hybrid capital, and so on. There are so many elements to it.’

‘What we’ve been doing both in Europe and globally is investing in the talent with the right relationships and experience to capture a significant and increasing share of that market,’ he said.

Supply and demand

Latham is certainly not alone in its big play for talent. Other firms bulking up to meet demand for real estate experience include Hogan Lovells, which recruited former Paul Hastings partners Michael James and Edward Meadowcroft in September 2025, and Mayer Brown, which this year added Taylor Wessing real estate finance partners Mark Rajenbach and Victoria Butcher.

Meanwhile, Freshfields added David Seymour and Will Bryant from Ropes & Gray in July last year.

Speaking to Legal Business about the increase in demand, Seymour said: ‘Amongst the leading City firms, there has been competition for talent. This is because it requires a fairly rare skillset of someone who sits between real estate and private equity, and understands the asset class across Europe and M&A.’

David Evans, who joined Fried Frank from Goodwin last September, agreed, saying: ‘The real estate-private equity cadre is still quite skinny. It’s like football managers – there’s only a limited pool of folks who can credibly do the job.’

Growth beyond London

Stephen Nicolas, who moved from Paul Hastings to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton last October, said the trend to invest in real estate goes beyond private equity.

‘I don’t think the trend is specific to PE,’ Nicolas said.

‘I think there are various market participants, all of whom have a different view on returns, risks and investment profile, and it takes all of these different views to make the market. If the trend was solely PE driven I think the market runs the risk of becoming stagnant,’ he continued.

Noting an international demand for real estate expertise he said: ‘From my perspective it is a global trend – there are incredibly active markets around Europe and often investors chasing returns will head into Europe and beyond to achieve these.’

Siobhán Lewington, co-office managing partner at legal recruitment firm Macrae, added: ‘We have seen more interest from US law firms in investing in partners focusing on ‘real assets’ in London. There has been an increase in lateral partner movement in this area over the last six months and it’s driven by firms wanting to provide real estate capability for their private equity clients.’

A lasting trend?

Despite the intense competition for talent, firms are not yet finished with expansion plans.

On Latham’s future growth, Ihenacho said: ‘We’re not complacent at all. This is an incredibly competitive market. We’re very proud of the team we’ve built, and we will continue to grow our practice.’

Fried Frank’s Evans concurred, noting that one reason for joining the firm was the opportunity to grow the real estate PE team further in Europe.

‘Fried Frank has a market leading real estate practice in New York. Part of the appeal was to have a ready-made platform with a strong reputation in the corporate real estate space. I want to help grow a real estate practice in London that mimics its New York strengths.’

For Seymour, this is a smart move. ‘For firms that focus on private capital, having a strong bench in real estate is important to deliver what clients need, particularly given the increase in the complexity and cross border nature of transactions in the sector.’

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