London law firm Howard Kennedy has welcomed Ed John as a partner to the firm’s real estate litigation team, reporting into the head of the team, Amanda McNeil.
Ed joins the partnership from Shoosmiths’ real estate litigation practice, where he held a leading role within the hotels sector group. He has built on his extensive experience advising on commercial real estate matters, on everything from prevention to resolution advice over the years. Prior to Shoosmiths, Ed held roles within the property and trust law team at the Law Commission of England and Wales, City firm Pritchard Englefield (now part of Irwin Mitchell) and held senior roles in the real estate disputes practices at Jones Day and Hogan Lovells.
Ed has a strong track record advising from both a landlord and a tenant perspective across hotel and leisure, office, retail, data centre and business continuity real estate. He also has experience in advising property developers on development disputes and insolvency practitioners in property-related insolvency matters. His skill set fits well with Howard Kennedy’s wider real estate litigation proposition, one of the largest in central London, noted for finding non-litigious ways of resolving potentially litigious issues.
Amanda McNeil, partner and Head of Real Estate Litigation at Howard Kennedy, said: ’Following another successful year for Howard Kennedy’s Real Estate Litigation team, we are delighted to welcome Ed to the partnership. His twenty years of extensive experience and contacts compliments our present offering and will help us to deliver further growth in 2019.’
Notable cases Ed has acted in include:
- Acting for the funder in a dispute between the funder and developer of a central London hotel where the contractor suddenly became insolvent, allowing the hotel to be completed and handed over to the new owner.
- Acting for six major retail landlords in a claim involving a dispute over a retailer’s security of tenure.
- A UK clearing bank on the re-gearing of its Canary Wharf campus and resolution of the connected £multi-million dilapidations and service charge dispute.
- A sovereign wealth fund in the acquisition by sale-and-manage-back of a landmark London hotel for £400m.
- A major landed estate in a £multi-million dispute regarding restrictive covenants.
- A 3C Waste Limited in the application of the landfill directive to an English law contract, reported in the case of 3C Waste Ltd v Mersey Waste Holdings Ltd & Anor [2006] EWHC 2598.
- The Metro Shopping Fund in the first reported case in which a landlord obtained the court’s permission for the landlord to forfeit following a pre-pack sale of the insolvent business by administrators Metro Nominees (Wandsworth) (No. 1) Limited and Others v K Rayment & Others [2008] BCC 40.
- An FTSE100 property company in obtaining vacant possession of a South London former retail site for development as a mixed use residential/commercial development – a vacant site was achieved six months ahead of schedule and 50% under budget.
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