Cleaver Fulton Rankin’s strong presence in the local real estate market is reflected through mandates which it often receives from London and international firms to act as Northern Ireland counsel in multi-jurisdictional transactions, a notable example includes the recent acquisition of over two hundred KFC-branded restaurants, which were operated by the EG Group. Joe Marley heads the practice, and regularly acts for a wide range of clients, including those in the healthcare, retail, and leisure industries. Kathryn Collie continues to advise Dalradian Gold Limited on acquisitions of land for its gold mine project. Patrick O'Hanlon is well regarded for his work in supporting housing associations in property securitisations.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Patrick O'Hanlon is a stand-out individual. He is very knowledgeable, pragmatic, commercial and responsive. ’

  • ‘Cleaver Fulton Rankin's property team are truly experts in this field. They provide prompt, accurate and easily understood advice which is always anchored to commercial pragmatism. ’

  • ‘Patrick O'Hanlon is a pleasure to work with. Nowadays, solicitors can be difficult to contact via phone to talk through transactions. But Patrick's always makes time for that to ensure we fully understand the property we are buying.'

  • ‘The team were extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the particular field that they represented me in. Their uniqueness lies in the diversity of their specialists fields within law. ’

  • ‘Joe Marley was beyond excellent. Extremely professional, very quick to respond to all forms of contact, and accommodated my schedule by meeting with me outside of business hours on several occasions.’

  • ‘Excellent communications with ongoing matters, feedback and responses back in an efficient manner.’

  • ‘Communication is perfect. To be constantly updated throughout the process and collaborated with consistently, I feel less stressed throughout the process.’

Key clients

  • Clanmil Housing Association
  • Dalradian Gold Limited
  • Arbour Housing Association
  • Target Healthcare Limited
  • T. J. Morris Limited (t/a Home Bargains)
  • River Island Fashion Limited
  • Invest Northern Ireland
  • Victa DP Ltd
  • KFC/Linklaters
  • BT
  • Wren Kitchens
  • Welcome Break
  • Specsavers Limited

Work highlights

  • Advising Clanmil Housing Association on receiving £100m investment from three UK and North American investors.
  • Acting as Northern Irish Counsel in the multi-jurisdictional for KFC in their acquisition of c220 KFC branded restaurants operated on a franchise basis by the EG Group.
  • Acting for Target Healthcare in the £22m sale of all of its Northern Irish care homes.

Lawyers

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Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Joe Marley

Other key lawyers

Kathryn Collie, Patrick O’Hanlon, Shane Conlan