WASHINGTON, DC, February 3, 2005. Following twelve months of independent research carried out by Legal Media Group, LMG has announced that DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary has more lawyers considered by clients to be experts in real estate law than any other firm in the world.
The results of the research are published in the fifth edition of LMG’s Expert Guides to the World’s Leading Real Estate Lawyers (2005).
The conclusions are based on an in-depth study of leading real estate lawyers, both in the US and in Europe. The initial stage of the research process involved distributing 2500 questionnaires to senior practitioners and in-house counsel involved in the practice area in 65 jurisdictions. The questionnaires asked leading figures to nominate those practitioners they considered to be among the most capable for Real Estate work. The results were analyzed and screened for firm, network and alliance bias.
As a final verification, the list was discussed with a select group of advisers from leading legal centers worldwide, including: Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna and Washington DC. LMG is an independent evaluation organization and their series of Expert Guides are well-respected in the legal industry.
The Real Estate practice group at DLA Piper has consistently been recognized for its quality. In the Global Counsel Corporate Real Estate Handbook (2004/05), the Practical Law Company, one of the leading British publishers in the legal industry, concluded that the firm has the premier real estate practice in the United States. The most recent edition of The International Who’s Who of Real Estate Lawyers dubbed Piper Rudnick “the number one firm in the world for real estate legal expertise” and cited 12 of the firm’s real estate attorneys as recommended by their clients and peers–more than any other firm in the world. Similarly, the current edition of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers named 19 of the firm’s real estate attorneys as leading business lawyers in the US and ranked the real estate group in the top tier in more states than any other American firm.
In its guide, LMG selected US DLA Piper partners Stephen A. Cowan, Charles L. Edwards, Jay A. Epstien, Howard E. Kane, Michael Meyer, Portia Owen Morrison, Martin D. Polevoy, Caryl B. Welborn, and Pamela Westhoff, more than any other US firm. They were joined in the UK by Martin Hallam and David Taylor.
Furthermore, Mr Epstien, who heads the US real estate group at DLA Piper and co-chairs the global real estate practice with Mr. Taylor, received more personal nominations than anyone else in Washington, which placed him among the world’s top five practicing real estate lawyers. Mr. Epstien also authored the introduction to the US section of the guide.
