Elizabeth Le Vay has experience across a broad range of real estate asset classes, from logistics and retail, to alternative asset classes, such as care homes and student accommodation. Ms. Le Vay represents both investors and lenders, and also advises landlord and tenant clients on all aspects of leasing transactions, including complicated re-gears and prime office acquisitions.

Ms. Le Vay acts on the real estate aspects on a range of financing matters, including the acquisition and development of commercial real estate, the refinancing of indebtedness secured on such commercial real estate and the acquisition and sale of non-performing loans secured on real estate both in the UK and continental Europe.

She has experience acting for a wide variety of client including financial institutions, alternative capital providers, UK and international investors, corporates, developers, and pension funds.

Ms. Le Vay adopts a holistic approach to each transaction, providing comprehensive advice on all real estate aspects. This includes detailed property management and asset management arrangements pertinent to the anticipated exit strategy. She collaborates with insurance brokers to offer integrated advice on insurance issues relevant to real estate assets, including those housing operational businesses. Ms. Le Vay works closely with valuers on diligence outcomes for their valuations, subsequently reporting to clients on the impact of consequential valuation and assumptions. She also oversees all real estate diligence on a transaction from a client perspective, including across European jurisdictions, ensuring local counsel delivery consistently meets our clients' expectations.

Ms. Le Vay partnered with CREFC Europe to establish a working group to examine challenges to financing senior living assets. She is also involved in various CREFC ESG initiatives.

Ms. Le Vay is ranked in the ‘up and coming’ category for real estate finance by Chambers UK where sources say she is “efficient, quick to respond and has deep knowledge.” Clients have also noted that Elizabeth Le Vay is “proactive, commercial and responsive. She does an excellent job and is pragmatic in her management of transactions,” and is “very personable and knowledgeable in her field.”

Ms. Le Vay has also been listed in The Legal 500 UK for property finance where she was described as “knowledgeable and reliable.”

    • Crown Holdings, Inc. in relation to the sale of its European Tinplate business for €2.25 billion.
    • A major U.S. private equity firm on its first U.K. logistics portfolio acquisition valued at £300 million.
    • A U.S. multinational private equity firm on its purchase, management and onward circa £300 million sale of an eminent mixed-use development in the heart of the City of London.
    • A financial institution and an institutional asset manager on the approximately £300 million refinancing of existing indebtedness of one of the "big four" healthcare providers in the UK. The transaction included a simultaneous sale and leaseback.
    • A financial institution and alternative capital provider on the approximately £300 million funding of a forward purchase of a portfolio of healthcare homes and their operator by a healthcare provider in the UK from another healthcare provider in the UK.
    • Wells Fargo Bank N.A. on its approximately £300 million purchase and development of new European headquarters based in London. The transaction marked the Bank’s first freehold purchase outside the U.S. and included a number of complex construction and development related issues.
    • The London Borough of Southwark in relation to the regeneration of Elephant and Castle.
    • A fund on the pre-let of substantial office space in a new mixed-use development with a top environmental rating and a rooftop garden.
    • A U.K. based developer in relation to the development and forward funding of student accommodation in Cambridge and the nomination agreement entered into with the university.
    • A French electric utility company in relation to the development of a nuclear reactor in the U.K.

    Includes matters handled at Dechert or prior to joining the firm.

    • ESG: Current Talking Points in the U.S. and the UK/EU - Webinar (May 2023)