Herbert Smith Freehills appoints Matthew White as new joint managing partner for Real Estate practice

Matthew succeeds real estate partner Jeremy Walden, who successfully held the role for six years and will continue the full-time fee-earning role that he maintained whilst performing the Managing Partner role.

Matthew is currently head of Planning in London and has more than 25 years of experience across all aspects of contentious and non-contentious planning and development law. He is also joint lead partner for the EMEA Real Estate sector at the firm and is responsible for client relationship and thought leadership initiatives to grow the firm's cross-practice real estate sector expertise. A homegrown talent, he joined Herbert Smith in 1995 as a trainee and became a partner in 2005.

Matthew is listed in the Legal 500 UK "Hall of Fame" and is one of only two lawyers identified as “Star Individual” for planning law in London by Chambers UK, which describes him as 'almost unrivalled in his experience and ability in advising private developers on large-scale energy, infrastructure and real estate developments' and that "Matthew is in the top handful of planning lawyers in London."

Beyond his practice and leadership roles at Herbert Smith Freehills, Matthew is Chairman of the City of London Law Society Planning and Environmental Law Committee, a member of the British Property Federation's Planning Committee, a Legal Associate of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. 

Ian Cox, Executive Partner, Practices at Herbert Smith Freehills, comments:

"Matthew is well-versed with leadership roles. As the current head of Planning in London and joint lead partner for the EMEA Real Estate sector, he is well-placed to take on the leadership of the global Real Estate practice with fellow Joint Managing Partner Luke Simpson. Their combined wealth of experience will enable our leading global practice to continue to grow healthily and to be a key driver of our firm strategy."

Commenting on his appointment, Matthew says:

"I am honoured to have this opportunity to co-lead our global Real Estate practice, working alongside a market-leading team with unparalleled vision and expertise. Under Jeremy's leadership, we have consistently delivered exceptional results for our clients and have achieved great success for our full-service real estate practice. I am excited to take the team forward to the next stage of our growth and look forward to continuing to build strong relationships across the real estate sector."