Lovells has appointed Michael Stancombe as joint head of real estate alongside Bob Kidby, as Kidby prepares to retire from the firm to join property developer Welbeck Land.

Kidby, who has headed Lovells' real estate practice since 1995 and is a longstanding adviser to Welbeck, took up a non-executive director role at the company last week. He will begin working in an executive capacity for the development company when he retires from Lovells in April 2010.

At that point, Stancombe will take sole leadership of the top 10 City firm's property practice.

Kidby told Legal Week: "I told my partners some time ago that this was my intention so we could build some succession planning. It is natural that Michael would take over from me and it has the full backing of the global practice."

He added: "They [Welbeck] are an interesting bunch. They are one of the few property companies currently in the position of having no financial problems to do with over-borrowing, as they sold their major developments prior to the crash."

Lovells' real estate practice in the City currently houses 14 partners working across commercial real estate, planning, disputes, finance and the environment.

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