Rachel Francis-LangPartner

I have a focus upon providing real estate services to corporate occupiers and developers and have a particular insight into clients’ needs and expectations on service delivery having worked in house on secondment as legal counsel to a listed projects/construction company. I have experience in handling large global real estate portfolios dealing with multiple moves from multiple locations, working in partnership with clients’ real estate consultants. I am a member of CoreNET.

Real Estate

I act for a wide variety of corporate occupiers and developers from a range of different sectors including advertising and marketing, media, technology, telecoms, retail, hotel and leisure. I can advise upon all aspects of the acquisition and disposal of properties, the negotiation of commercial leases and all related documentation, advising companies in relation to the acquisition of high value headquarter premises on a pre-let basis and dealing with general estate management as well as advising on issues arising out of company re-structuring and handling the due diligence on mergers and acquisitions. I am also experienced in dealing with mixed use development projects both in the UK and overseas.

Many of my clients have a global presence and I am able to project manage transactions on an international basis.

Real Estate & Development

I have wide-ranging development and project experience and have advised local authorities, the private sector, landlords, tenants and banks in relation to all related aspects of development including site assembly, overage, development agreements conditional on planning and handling phased projects. My experience has been gained not only in private practice but also having spent time in house on secondment as legal counsel to a listed projects/construction company during which time I handled the corporate and real estate aspects of PFI projects in the health, road and education sectors.

I have experience of developing green field sites as business parks, out of town shopping centres, city centre office and hotel developments as well as international mixed use leisure developments.

A particular focus of my practice is in advising corporate occupiers operating in a range of different sectors including retail, media, telecoms, technology, financial, hotel and leisure.

I am able to advise upon all aspects of the acquisition and disposal of properties and the negotiation of commercial leases and all related documentation. I can also provide advice to companies in relation to the acquisition of high value headquarter premises on a pre-let basis and can deal with general estate management as well as providing advice on issues arising out of company re-structuring and handling the due diligence on mergers and acquisitions. 

Many of my clients have a global presence and I am able to project manage transactions on an international basis.

Advertising & Marketing

I have particular experience in advising clients within the media sector and understand the particular issues which arise for companies within this sector who may range from a small start-up company requiring short term space through to a large global corporate occupier with a very large real estate portfolio with a complex corporate structure. Transactions may range from handling short term occupational arrangements, desk-sharing agreements, intra-group arrangements and shared services agreements through to dealing with a major leasehold acquisition of new headquarter premises with all the attendant fitting out documentation.

Many of my clients are based outside of the UK and I am used to explaining transactions in a clear and commercial way. I am also able to provide advice in a user friendly way to senior executives so that this can be used for reporting purposes internally.

Where a company has a large global presence, I am able to project manage transactions on an international basis.

Technology

Technology/telecoms companies often have a large portfolio of real estate which will not only comprise office buildings but may also comprise specialised buildings such as R&D sites, data centres, call centres and mast sites.

I can provide specialist commercial and pragmatic advice across a broad spectrum of real estate issues whatever the size and shape of the portfolio.

I have particular specialist expertise in this sector having dealt with the 3G roll out for a global telecoms provider which involved the drafting and negotiation of over a hundred mast leases, licences and easements in rooftop locations, agricultural land, sensitive residential sites and church spires. In connection with my telecoms work, I have dealt with site sharing agreements and cable agreements. I also have experience in dealing with data centres and the acquisition and disposal of production facilities for technology companies.