Gareth Williams signs for Blake Morgan

Gareth Williams has joined Blake Morgan as a Partner in the London Real Estate team.

Gareth joins the firm from DLA Piper where he was a Legal Director. He specialises in advising clients on high-value mixed use and residential development and regeneration schemes along with student housing, build to rent and development finance.

He began his career with Gouldens (Jones Day), qualifying in 2003 into their commercial property department. He then spent a year in Halliwells in Manchester before joining Dentons in 2005. In 2013 he joined RPC before moving with their development and construction team to DLA Piper in July 2014.

Notable client work includes advising on the construction of a 47 storey residential tower (including almost 200 private rented units), together with the construction of a new theatre and retail space at Newington Butts, SE11. This included the negotiation of transactional documentation with the GLA, advising on the structuring of the transaction and exit strategies, together with concluding documentation relating to the forward funding of the scheme and concluding Build to Rent funding with the HCA (now Homes England).

He also acts for numerous developers on all aspects of residential and mixed use schemes in Central and Greater London and the South East (from site acquisition to final exit) and has advised large national entities, such as Crest Nicholson PLC, Gladedale Homes Limited, Fairbriar and Taylor Wimpey in relation to numerous residential schemes.

Philip Jardine is a Partner and Director of the Built Environment division at Blake Morgan. He said: “Gareth has wide ranging experience across the spectrum of commercial property work, having been involved throughout his career in advising on high profile development schemes and numerous high value acquisitions and disposals.  Gareth also has also a lot of experience in restructuring and joint ventures, pre packaged and trading administration sales, lettings and pre-lets and corporate occupier work.

“He has a proven track record in advising clients throughout the development cycle, including site acquisition, land assembly, financing, forward funding /development agreements until eventual letting or disposal. This is a great fit with our highly successful built environment team and we are delighted to have Gareth on board.”

Gareth Williams added: “Blake Morgan is a dynamic and forward thinking firm that benefits from a highly respected team of lawyers with a strong presence in London and the South-East. They understand the market and are committed to further developing this practice area which is why I am so pleased to join the team.”