Ropes & Gray has strengthened its corporate and private equity practices in London with the hire of former Clifford Chance (CC) partner and real estate specialist Ian Morpeth.

Morpeth, who joined the US firm as a partner yesterday (3 January), left CC at the beginning of last year to join Oppenheimer Investments as global chief operating officer.

Prior to this, he had spent nearly 23 years as a partner in CC's real estate practice, having advised on landmark deals including Beacon Capital Partners' acquisition of CityPoint for £650m in 2007 and Meridian Delta Consortium's acquisition of the Millennium Dome from the UK Government in 2002.

His practice focuses on private equity real estate, joint ventures, acquisitions and disposals, projects, structured finance, public-private partnerships and private finance initiatives. He has also advised on workout and earn-out agreements and outsourcing in the real estate industry sector.

Morpeth becomes the fifth partner in Ropes' London private equity practice, which last year hired DLA Piper private equity chief Will Rosen as well as fellow partner Kiran Sharma, and Peter Baldwin from Jones Day. The firm also welcomed Bill Mone, who relocated from the US.

London co-chief Maurice Allen commented: "Our funds, private equity and banking clients are looking at solutions for portfolios of real estate assets and Iain's wide-ranging and specialised talents in this area are a huge asset for us. This is a fantastic hire of one of the top-ranked private equity real estate lawyers in London, with a focus that few others have."