We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.
Practice areas / services
Forsters is a private client and real-estate focused law firm, with the following practice areas:
- Corporate
- Dispute Resolution
- Private Client
- Real Estate
Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Forsters its highest ‘Band 1’ rankings for the following departments: Agriculture & Rural Affairs and Real Estate: £50 - 150 million. See here for more information
Key sectors / industries
Forsters is a leading real estate and private client firm that frequently advises businesses in the following sectors:
In addition, Forsters services the following sectors: Family offices, Hotels and leisure, Industrial and logistics, Private Wealth, Retail and Technology.
Work
Forsters’ noteworthy work includes:
- Q Investment Partners: The firm acted on behalf of Q Investment Partners to facilitate a joint venture with Hurlington Capital to develop an £80 million student accommodation site in Woolwich.
- Elsevier: Forsters advised Elsevier, an academic publishing company specialising in scientific, technical and medical content, on the sale of its long-term UK HQ in Kidlington, Oxford, and associated relocation into new premises.
- Norgine Limited: The firm advised Norgine Limited on the acquisition and legal aspects of the fit-out of their new 24,000 square-foot premises at ARC Uxbridge.
Older examples
- Royal Albert Dock Liverpool: The firm is acting for a joint venture between developer General Projects and investor Neo Capital on the acquisition of part of the Royal Albert Docks in Liverpool. This acquisition has been funded in part by a loan from Merseyside Pension Fund.
- Fears v Tate: This Supreme Court case saw members of Forsters work as advisors for the claimants. The case involved residents on Neo Bankside claiming that they were experiencing the tort of nuisance in light of the Tate Modern’s viewing gallery, which overlooked their properties. In February 2023, the Supreme Court found in favour of the claimants.
- HG Living: The firm’s Commercial Real Estate and Construction teams acted for HG Living on its forward funding of a new 350-bed student accommodation scheme by Q Investment Partners in Newcastle.
- Ministry of Defence: Forsters advised the Ministry of Defence in connection with the claims brought by Annington Homes regarding military service family accommodation. The case was heard in the High Court.
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Headquarters: London, 64 George Street. The firm also has a support office near Canary Wharf.
Offices: Forsters is currently based in the heart of Mayfair, but the firm is preparing to move to new headquarters at 22 Baker Street in the heart of Marylebone.
Insights, internships and other opportunities
Forsters hosts three open days throughout the year (two in person and one virtually). These provide candidates the opportunity to find out more about the firm and its practice areas.
Alongside these open days, the firm also runs two summer vacation schemes. Each vacation scheme includes the opportunity to sit with either a partner or solicitor and experience ‘real work’ of the type a trainee undertakes, as well as attend lunchtime seminars, visit court and attend departmental presentations. There are 10 places on each vacation scheme. To find out more about the firm, the graduate recruitment team has created a number of podcasts that provide further information about life at Forsters, including what it’s like to train at the firm and how to go about completing an application to the firm. These can be listened to here.
Training contract
The firm takes on ten trainees per year. Each training contract is made up of six seats which are four-months long. The firm believes the six-seat system gives trainees a better opportunity to sample the firm’s practice areas before making a final decision about where to qualify, whilst providing trainees with the opportunity to revisit a department of interest towards the end of the training contract.
As part of the training contract, all trainees and newly qualified solicitors are assigned a senior member of the firm as their mentor. Trainees are also paired with a buddy upon joining the firm, who is either a second-year trainee or a newly qualified solicitor.
Trainees are encouraged to complete a seat in both Tax, Trusts and Estates, and Commercial Real Estate (it is compulsory to sit in at least one of these). Trainees must also choose at least one contentious seat, and can choose between the firm’s Dispute Resolution, Property Litigation, Family or Contentious Construction seats to fulfil this requirement. The training contract also includes ‘soft skills’ sessions and spreads out formal training requirements across several months, rather than solely during the initial induction.
Secondments
The firm does not offer client or international secondments.
Technology and innovation
Forsters focuses on keeping private wealth and real estate clients abreast of relevant new developments and innovations. Examples of how the firm does this include:
- Outside the Box: Supporting an Industrial Evolution Report: in 2023, the firm produced a report based on a survey by FTI Consulting’s professional research team. The report collected responses from 61 UK based professional real estate investors and developers. A large component of this report focused on how the industry is dealing with AI.
- NetDocuments Cloud Platform: the firm uses NetDocuments as its secure cloud-based content services platform. It chose to move to this service because of its approach to security (being a truly cloud-based infrastructure) and the ease of use of the platform. NetDocuments was founded in 1999 and is a leader in this kind of service.
- Knowledge Team: the firm has a Knowledge Team which assists with improving the internal management and dissemination of knowledge and information at the firm. Included within this is the innovation of new legal technology solutions.
Corporate social responsibility
Forsters emphasises that its corporate social responsibility commitments should reflect its belief that the firm has a “collective responsibility to be good members” of the community. Examples of the firm’s corporate social responsibility initiatives include:
- St Andrew’s Club: The firm has a partnership with St Andrew’s Club, a community based youth club that provides fun and educational activities for young people from the ages of five to adulthood. The partnership was established in 2019, and since then, members of the firm have been involved with a number of fundraising and engagement activities.
- Thursday Lunch Club: The firm runs a Lunch Club in conjunction with Grosvenor Chapel for refugees and those without recourse to public funds. Each week volunteers from across the firm spend time preparing and serving lunch to guests and meeting members of the community.
- Forsters Charitable Trust: This is the firm’s grant-making charity which was set up in 1998. The partners make annual contributions to the charity to enable it to respond to appeals from clients and contacts of the firm, and from members of staff seeking to raise funds for their favourite charities.
- CSR Days: All members of the firm are encouraged to take one day, or two half days each year (during working hours) to volunteer for a cause they are interested in supporting.
Diversity and inclusion
Forsters prides itself on being a “very welcoming firm” and is committed to providing an environment which is inclusive of everyone. The firm’s commitment in this context is demonstrated by the following examples:
- Diversity and Inclusion Committee: The firm has a Diversity and Inclusion Committee which actively promotes D&I and drives action across the firm.
- Support Networks: Forsters has seven employee-led support networks which cover disability, faith, gender, equality, pride, race, social mobility and working parents and carers. The networks offer a space for discussion, raising awareness and influencing change through firmwide collaboration.
- Halo Code: The firm is a proud supporter of the Halo Code which is a code designed to protect the rights of Black students and staff to wear and embrace Afro-hairstyles.