Investors' watchdogs have criticised newly-recruited DJ Freeman property partner Michael Cassidy's role as a non-executive director at British Land following disclosures that his previous firm, Maxwell Batley, was paid £190,000 in fees by the company.

Cassidy is one of three British Land directors whose independence has been questioned by the Pensions Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) and the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF).

Both groups are backing calls for sweeping management changes at the company to improve shareholder value, including the appointment of more independent non-executive directors.

DJ Freeman, which is an existing British Land adviser, announced the appointment of the former Maxwell Batley senior partner on Friday (5 July) in a move that is seen as a major boost to its property practice.

However, it has drawn the firm into the controversy over British Land's non-executive directors. A spokeswoman for the NAPF confirmed that it did not consider Cassidy to be an independent director.

PIRC research director Stuart Bell added: "If there are professional and/or financial connections between a non-executive and a company, then this raises concerns about the non-executive's independence and should not be encouraged."

Cassidy – who is also a non-executive director of UBS Warburg – downplayed the row, claiming that he would never directly act for a company on whose board he was sitting.

He said: "I am able to have an interest in the company as long as it is not material. The work that Maxwell Batley did formed less than 2% of the [firm's] total billing and was carried out by two of my partners independently."

Although there is nothing to stop partners becoming non-executive directors with clients of their firms, the practice is discouraged at many of the City's top firms.