City law firm Druces is delighted to have been recommended in ten legal categories in the latest edition of Legal 500, (2019) which has just been published, together with commendations for a number of our lawyers.

Legal 500 highlights a number of areas for particular praise, including:

• Druces’ Private Client team – ‘very efficient and client-focused and comes up with creative solutions to suit its clients’ needs’ (Personal Tax, Trusts and Probate). The ‘conscientious’ team at Druces LLP ‘takes really great care of its lay clients and is willing to go the extra mile’ (Charities) and is a ‘firm with a growing presence in this area’ (Contentious Trusts and Probate);
• ‘Healthcare is a sector strength’ for our M&A team and ‘technology is a particular area of growth’ with an ‘established client base of institutional fund and listed companies, as well as private companies and investors’;

   

• Commercial Litigation – Druces’ ‘litigators understand clients’ needs and their advice is always spot-on’;

   

• Immigration – ‘skilled’, ‘accurate’ and ‘efficient’ – a new entry in the Legal 500 rankings for our Immigration team;
• Real Estate is commended for ‘practical and considered advice on landlord and tenant issues that present particularly demanding timeframes’, gaining a strong ranking for advising corporate occupiers;

   

• Real Estate Litigation – a ‘good, strong player in the market’ and offers a ‘forensic and insightful approach to any given dispute’;

   

• Real Estate Finance – the ‘overall level of service is superb’: ‘partners stay actively engaged in the deals and provide commercial, sensible advice’; and
• Islamic Finance which has a ‘particular experience in real estate securities predominantly, advising on cost-plus and commodity murabaha, wakala, ijarah, mudarabah and musharakah structures’.

Druces’ lawyers who are recognised by Legal 500 include:

Julian Johnstone is praised for his ‘broad skill set’ and ‘practical and commercial advice’ as well as his ‘first rate analytical mind’; Adrian Footer is ‘a pragmatic and commercially minded team leader’; Christopher Axford, Suzanne Middleton-Lindsley and Simon Pullen ‘demonstrate an excellent technical ability, are thorough and methodical, and best of all are an absolute pleasure to deal with’; and Charles Spragge is ‘smart, quick and has great analytical skills’.

Private client lawyers singled out include ‘readily available’ and ‘calm and experienced’ Richard Monkcom;  Robert Macro is ‘precise and provides quality advice’;  ‘responsive’ Neil Morris has ‘decades of experience of dealing with complex and high-profile cases. His knowledge is encyclopaedic’;  ‘excellent’ Helen Freely; ‘deals with difficult situations extremely well’ and is ‘very good tactically’;  and Matthew Duncan ‘knows his subject extremely well’.

For a complete run down of Druces’ performance and associated commentary from Legal 500, please visit our Legal 500 page.