Davitt Jones Bould (DJB), the specialist real estate law firm with nearly 50 solicitors (with an average of 20 years post qualification experience in commercial property and who are based across the UK) has made three more senior appointments with the announcement that Nick Martel will join as a Non-Executive and Nigel Heilpern will join as a Consultant. becomes the firm’s first Non-Executive Chairman after five years as the Non-Executive Director.
All three know each other well having worked together for over 25 years. Geoffrey and Nigel worked together at Nabarro and actually advised Nick Martel when he worked for a number of the worlds leading retailers. They see DJB as having a unique and brilliant business model. The firm only recruits qualified solicitors with over 10 years commercial property experience and includes alumni from Nabarro, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Allen & Overy and others. DJB make no charge for the Account Directors who take care of all the client care needs and who are available to clients at all times as they are not caught up in deals.
Nick Martel recently left CBRE where he was an Executive Director for over 13 years, heading up their EMEA retail business comprising over 850 people in 28 countries. His clients included HSBC, Sainsbury’s, Terra Firma and TfL. Prior to this, Nick worked across the UK, Europe and the USA in a range of executive roles for market-leading retailers including Gap Inc. and Specsavers.
Described as a ‘brilliant real estate lawyer’ by Chambers and Partners, Nigel Heilpern also joins DJB as a Consultant. Nigel joins the firm following seven years as Head of Real Estate and Real Estate Finance at US Firm King & Spalding. Prior to this Nigel was a Partner at Nabarro. He has an excellent reputation in the City for his work on complex real estate finance deals and transactional work for banks, developers and other institutions.
The news comes after Geoffrey Lander was promoted to Non-Executive Chairman at DJB. Geoffrey is a household name in the real estate sector having spent 30 years at Nabarro, where he was the department head for five years and later was responsible for their Transatlantic clients. He was a trusted advisor to a stellar client base that included HSBC Group, JP Morgan and Gap Inc. Since leaving practice he has held multiple non-executive roles including Non-Executive Chairman for Irwin Mitchell’s London team for five years until 2014.
DJB CEO Peter Allinson said: “The addition of Nigel and Nick to the team is all part of DJB’s ascendancy into becoming the leading specialist real estate law firm in the UK. With Geoffrey as our new Chairman I am looking forward to the next chapter and continued rapid growth”.