DLA Piper appoints William Naunton as International Group Head for Real Estate

DLA Piper has appointed London-based partner, William Naunton, as the International Group Head for the Real Estate practice, succeeding Paris-based partner. Antoine Mercier, who stepped down from this position after two successful terms.

Antoine has held the role as International Group Head since April 2017. Under his leadership, the practice has gone from strength to strength with a host of achievements, including the deployment of enhanced capabilities to position the firm to deliver highly-complex multi-jurisdictional work.

Stepping into the role, effective 1 May 2023, is London-based partner, William Naunton, previously the UK Head of DLA Piper’s Real Estate practice. He brings a wealth of experience and was cited in Property Week as one of the top ten real estate lawyers in the UK.

William joined DLA Piper in 2017 and has supported clients on all aspects of structured real estate investments and development portfolios across Europe, and has led on large UK and European transactions, in particular advising on the formation of joint ventures and on real estate capital markets transactions.

With William assuming the IGH role, there has been a selection process to appoint a new UK Head of Real Estate. James Knox, who was London location head for Real Estate, will take over from William with Lorraine Reader taking up James’ role.

DLA Piper is now one of the pre-eminent firms globally for complex real estate transactions, with over 750 real estate lawyers across 45 countries including the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and the whole of Europe.

Olaf Schmidt, Managing Director of Practice Groups at DLA Piper, commented: “I am delighted that William has accepted the role of International Group Head of Real Estate. Since joining the firm he has transformed the UK Real Estate Group and as a result overseen a significant period of profitable growth in the UK. We look forward to his contributions to the wider practice and would like to thank Antoine for the effort and expertise he has put in to building the Real Estate practice during his two terms. William will undoubtedly build on this success.”