The firm is bringing in a trio of real estate partners from Halliwells’ London office, including the national firm’s London head of real estate, Simon Hardwick. He will be joined by partners Adam Perry and Tim Hart.
The hires mark an unusual move for PwC Legal, which has made few partner hires in recent years and come as the firm looks to extend its legal offering. Last year it hired a 10-lawyer immigration team from CMS Cameron McKenna.
Speculation is mounting that other big four accounting firms are also preparing to ramp up their lawyer count, with one firm understood to be close to bringing in two senior tax litigators from a City firm.
PwC is likely to have a competitive advantage over rivals looking to build up in preparation for the Legal Services Act (LSA) as it is currently the only one of the big four with a separate UK legal arm enabling it to offer legal advice to PwC clients.
However, some have suggested the accounting giants are unlikely to push back heavily into the legal sphere following the 2002 breakup of Andersen Legal. Rather they will try to recruit in areas such as tax litigation, regulation and corporate.
One partner told Legal Week: “Accountancy firms have been in the legal sphere before and I doubt whether there will be that much change at first. The LSA will not produce revolutionary changes.”
Halliwells has named partner Paul Marco as acting property head with immediate effect.