Winckworth Sherwood appoints top housing lawyer to drive growth in core social housing and regeneration market.

Mon 16 Jun 2008

Leading housing law firm Winckworth Sherwood has announced the appointment of Louis Robert as a partner in the firm's market leading social housing and regeneration group. The group now comprises 15 partners and over 45 fee earners and, with Andrew Murray and Keith Jenkins, now has 3 of the top 8 housing lawyers in London as reported in Chambers 2008.

Louis Robert joins the firm from housing law firm Prince Evans where he was senior partner. He specialises in innovative projects for Registered Social Landlords and local authorities. Recent projects include regeneration, stock transfer, HAT succession, PFI and similar schemes, planning gain schemes, flexible tenure, key worker and joint venture transactions. He advises on arms length companies, group structures and mergers and acquisitions for RSL's as well as borrowing vehicles and structured finance for lenders and borrowers in the social housing sector. He regularly writes and lectures on RSL and other housing and regeneration topics.

Louis joins Winckworth Sherwood on June 16th with a team which will include specialist housing solicitors Charlotte Cook, Beverley Platt and Sushil Thobhani with administrative support from Bindh Parekh and Noreen Abdullah.

Commenting on Louis' arrival, Winckworth Sherwood head of housing and regeneration Andrew Murray said: "We are delighted that Louis and his team have chosen to join us. His significant presence and reputation in the social housing and regeneration sectors reinforce our position as one of the leading specialist law firms in the area. As the sector continues to consolidate, our investment in the scale of expertise provided by Louis and his team, as well as the provision of integrated legal advice to social housing, regeneration, social landlord, local authority and private sector developer clients will strengthen our market position and contribute to the strategic growth of our business."

Louis Robert added: "I am delighted that my team and I will be joining Winckworth Sherwood particularly as the firm embarks on a strategy for growth in the social housing and regeneration sectors at the interface between the private and public sector. The social housing sector is changing rapidly and the firm's integrated cross disciplinary approach and the breadth of their expertise will prove very attractive to our client base. My team and I look forward to the opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of the firm's continued growth in the sector."