Eye on Legal 500
Gerard Small, Partner – Commercial Property and Private Client, John McKee.
LEGAL 500 ACCOLADE FOR JOHN McKEE FINANCE TEAM It didn’t come as any surprise to Alison Reid and the Banking & Finance team at John McKee Solicitors that the team was named in the coveted top tier of Belfast law firms specialising in banking and finance.
“W
e’ve worked hard and in a planned way to establish ourselves as one of the top teams for banking and finance in Northern Ireland, and the hard work has paid off,” says Alison Reid. “We were delighted to see our name in the top tier. It’s an important seal of approval, and one which will reinforce our credentials not just in the local marketplace, but also outside of Northern Ireland, among those looking for legal counsel here.” Alison Reid trained as a solicitor with John McKee and has been with the Belfast and London-based firm for 12 years. Now a Partner at the firm, she specialises in banking and finance as well as insolvency and business restructuring.
“We work with all of the main banks serving the Northern Ireland marketplace and also across the UK and Ireland. That includes Ulster Bank, Danske Bank, Bank of Ireland, First Trust Bank, and Santander and we’ve built up significant knowledge base, expertise and experience in the banking and finance law arena,” says Alison Reid. “Over the past few years, the practice has been working on a lot of transactions for the various banks. For a period, the focus shifted towards enforcement work, but now we’re seeing a larger volume of loan activity and transactions coming through as the market normalises once again.” Her comments reflect how the wider market has changed through
Alison Reid, Partner – Banking & Finance and Restructuring & Insolvency, John McKee.
the years of the financial crisis and out into recovery mode. “So the banks are beginning to lend again, there is once again an appetite for borrowing, but it is fair to say that the banks are more stringent in the way that they are processing and managing that lending. Times have changed, and that’s also reflected in the legal work that John McKee finds itself managing My colleagues are more and more frequently involved in cross jurisdictional lending and our multi-jurisdictional lawyers are key to those deals” We are excited about the market potential that creates for us and we are approaching these opportunities in a focused manner. In addition to its Tier 1 ranking in the banking and finance section of this year’s Legal 500, John McKee had two of its senior lawyers named among the Leading Individuals in the sector – Avril McCammon and Angus Creed taking their places in an eight-strong banking and finance legal elite list. Outside of banking and finance, John McKee was listed in Tier 2 of three other legal sectors – Dispute Resolution, Insolvency & Corporate Recovery and Private Client (Tax, Trust & Probate). Alison’s fellow partner, Gerard Small, heads up John McKee’s Commercial Property team as well as the Private Client team within the firm.
“It’s an area which has become more active for us over recent years,” he says. “We’ve been instructed in several large-scale projects for a range of clients, and it’s an area where our cross-jurisdictional qualified lawyers are a real strength and advantage for us as a firm. “The commercial property sector is starting to grow once again, but within a different and more stringent lending model. Finance is becoming available from the banks, and there is no doubt that development and construction activity is returning. “The retail environment is improving but the landscape here has also changed remarkably and we’re seeing increased interests in lettings from hospitality operators. There are challenges around Grade A office accommodation and a shortage of prime retail units, but the market is looking more buoyant. The recent initiative from InvestNI has seen over £43 million of loan applications to develop Grade A office accommodation in Northern Ireland so demand is obviously there.” “We take a problem-solving approach to all of our work especially to clients in commercial property given the changes within that sector. We add value at every stage and always have the strategic interests of our clients as our primary focus in every aspect of what we do. ”
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