How can we make Greenwoods’ Real Estate team famous?

So: when a Greenwoods client moves into a new space, we send them coffee. It is a small thing, and it is not a marketing gesture.  It is there because somebody on the team remembered that beyond completion is a person standing in an empty space, wondering where to start.

That instinct runs through the practice. In the Residential team, Lois Watts worked as an estate agent before she moved to the legal side and knows what a moving day actually feels like.  Maria Corneli guides international clients through English transactions in Italian and French, and Amalie Raben-Levetzau does the same in Danish, because English conveyancing is strange enough in English.  Will Thomas built the residential team around one rule: clients should not have to wonder what is happening in what could potentially be the biggest transaction of their lives.

On the commercial side the same thinking produced REsource, a subscription service giving clients a named lawyer in the team, monthly credits that roll over rather than expire, and one predictable payment instead of a negotiation about scope.  It was built for operators running multiple sites, flexible workspace businesses and landlords/portfolio managers who need a real estate lawyer regularly but don’t want to hire in house.  Clients include Oatly, Signature Brew, Swyft, Uncommon and Champagne + Fromage.

The team have made five appointments in September taking the combined Real Estate, Residential Property and Property Disputes teams to 32. Richard Hughes and Callum Leary joined as Partners in commercial real estate with Kieran Rodda as a Senior Associate, all from Moore Barlow. Amalie Raben-Levetzau joined as a Partner in Residential Property from Withers, and Poornima Andrews as a Managing Associate from Forsters. The build-out continues so next time you think Real Estate, think Greenwoods…

The appointments add depth to a Real Estate practice advising on development, investment, landlord and tenant, property finance and property disputes, and extend the firm’s capability in electric vehicle charging infrastructure – the site agreements, leases and land rights underpinning the rollout of public charging. 

Stephanie Hyde, Managing Partner of Greenwoods, said: “Every serious firm in this market has technically excellent lawyers, and so do we – that is the entry ticket, not the differentiator.  What clients remember is whether anyone picked up the phone, whether they were told the truth early, and whether the advice made sense the first time. Alex has built a team that does all three, and then he went and hired five more people who do the same.”

Alex Hutchings, Head of Real Estate at Greenwoods, said: “Being famous doesn’t mean we’re in the press day in day out or sharing behind the scenes antics online. But there is no reason a property team should be forgettable. If a client remembers us, it will be because we kept them updated, told them the truth quickly, answered the phone, took the stress out of the transaction and sent coffee when they moved in. That’s the space this team is going to make our own.”