Mishcon de Reya has recruited two real estate partners from SJ Berwin, with Nick Minkoff and Stephen Hughes set join the London firm.

Minkoff, who made partner at SJ Berwin in 2004, will join Mishcons later this month (18 January) while Hughes' start date is still being negotiated.

Hughes joined SJ Berwin just two years ago from Olswang to work alongside Minkoff in building on the firm's investor client base, which at the time included clients such as Delancey, Londonewcastle, Jesta Captial, Rowan Asset Management, Chelsfield and Wichford.

The hires, which increase partner headcount in Mishcons' 35-lawyer real estate department to 15, come just one month after the firm recruited financial services partner Jonathan Denton from Salans.

Commenting on the new hires, Mishcons' real estate head Nick Doffman said: "There are great synergies between their clients and our own. The work that they do is complementary to our firm and, in addition, the culture of the firm and our department was a pull for them.

"We are encouraged that we are able to bring them into the department notwithstanding what is going on in the market, as we see a number of growth opportunities."

SJ Berwin has made cuts to its real estate team in light of the financial crisis during 2009, with the department affected by the firm's redundancy consultations over the year. Like many other UK firms, SJ Berwin also restructured its partnership in 2009, although the firm stated that "fewer than six" partners were affected.