Ashursts real estate disputes team strengthened with key partner hire

Alison joins from Squire Patton Boggs where she was a partner in the London litigation team and national head of the property litigation practice. Prior to that she was a director at Wragge & Co. Alison has particular expertise in working with technology companies, corporate occupiers and property companies including developers, investment funds, commercial landlords, occupational tenants, retailers and banks on their property disputes. Alison acted as chair of the Property Litigation Association until November last year.

James Levy, head of the London dispute resolution team, said:

"Alison is a highly regarded and experienced real estate litigator. We have every confidence that she will deliver great results for clients and play a key role in further developing our capability in high value disputes."

Global head of real estate Hugh Lumby, added:

"Alison's appointment reflects our commitment to having one of the strongest and highest performing multi-disciplinary real estate teams in the market. There are some major opportunities in the sector on which Alison will help us capitalise. In particular the investment we saw last year in proptech is certainly set to continue. Alison's expertise in this area is a perfect complement to our digital economy team and will boost our capability in the developing proptech disputes market."

Alison Hardy commented:

"Ashurst's disputes and real estate teams are renowned for the quality of their lawyers and the exceptional client base so this is the prefect platform for me. I am looking forward to joining the team and helping to grow the real estate disputes capability further both globally and across sectors."

Ashurst's global practice is one of the top contentious real estate teams in the market. The team has significant experience working on high value litigation and arbitration on a broad range of real estate issues, including rights of light, break options, restrictive covenants, dilapidations, insolvency, interpretation of property documents and termination of agreements.

This is the second partner hire for the firm in the real estate sector this year, having recently appointed real estate and asset finance partner Filip Kurkowski to its team in Frankfurt. Filip joins from Baker McKenzie where he worked since 2016. Prior to that, Filip was a member of Allen & Overy's banking and finance practice for more than 15 years. He advises banks, private equity real estate funds, mezzanine lenders and mezzanine investors on all aspects of real estate and asset finance, as well as on mezzanine loans. In the real estate finance sector, Filip advises banks and investors on the acquisition of commercial or residential real estate portfolios and in asset finance, he acts for arrangers, debt providers, lessors and lessees on the financing of mobile assets.