CMS Poland appoints new Head of Real Estate & Construction
Caroline Maude was appointed head of the Real Estate and Construction practice at CMS in Poland. Caroline, a partner based in CMS’s London office, takes over a team of 30 lawyers, one of the largest and most experienced real estate teams in Poland. She replaces Wojciech Koczara, who had led the department since 2012 but will now continue his career outside of CMS. Caroline will lead the Warsaw and Poznan real estate teams together with current Polish real estate partners, Lidia Dziurzyńska-Leipert and Anna Brzoza-Ostrowska.
Caroline has over 25 years of experience advising on a wide range of real estate matters, including acquisitions and disposals of office/mixed-used investments, all aspects of development, large-scale pre-lettings, JVs financing and forward funding. Her experience includes working with Great Portland Estates Plc on their site acquisition of Rathbone Square, London, its subsequent development and pre-letting to Facebook for rent of over £16 million a year, and finally its forward sale for £435 million. Caroline is also a Board member of The British Council for Offices.
Andrzej Pośniak, the Managing Partner of CMS Poland, comments: “We are very grateful to Wojciech for his contribution over so many years. Our intention is to consolidate our deep RE sector knowledge and further develop our highly experienced team. We have a brilliant team of lawyers in Poland and a fantastic portfolio of local and international clients, many of whom are headquartered in the United Kingdom. We have no doubt that the combination of Caroline’s experience, energy and managerial skill, as well as her international client network, will be beneficial not only for our Polish RE team but also for the entire CEE RE practice”.
The Polish CMS real estate and construction group currently numbers 30 lawyers and is ranked by international directories among the leading real estate teams in the Polish market. Recently, the team has advised on such projects, as the sale of the Warsaw Financial Center office tower, one of the largest transactions in the office market in Poland in 2019. CMS real estate lawyers have also advised on the debut investment in Poland by Amundi Real Estate, a French real estate fund, which consisted in the acquisition of “Nowogrodzka Square”, a Class A office building located in the heart of Warsaw. Another example was the sale of a portfolio of five logistics parks by Panattoni, Marvipol, Bluehouse, and Kajima.