James Dodsworth

Partner, London

Biography

“James Dodsworth is extremely bright and accurate on technical matters and has a very pragmatic negotiating style.”
Real Estate Big Ticket, Chambers UK 2022

Overview

James Dodsworth is a partner in our global Real Estate industry group based in London and is Head of the Real Estate, Tax, Employment, Compensation & Benefits and Financial Services Regulatory practices for the EMEA region.

James advises clients on the investment, structuring, leasing and financing of commercial real estate, and is widely acknowledged as an authority on the European data center industry.

James has a particular focus on data centers and digital infrastructure, and is a regular speaker at data center industry events throughout the UK, Europe and Asia. He has authored a number of industry related publications, relating to the legal challenges facing those involved with data centers.

Bars and Courts
England and Wales
Education
The College of Law
Chester
LLB
University of Birmingham
Languages
English

Experience

Representation of Fenwick, the UK retailer on the sale of one of its national department stores located on New Bond Street in central London.

Representation of a London based data centre operator in connection with its US$1 billion acquisition and associated multi-phase development financing of an industrial plot in outer London, UK for the purpose of developing and operating a data centre facility.

Representation of Digital Realty, on its US$680 million sale of a portfolio of 11 European data centres to Ascendas Reit, a CapitaLand sponsored REIT (Project Fairway)

Representation on Global Compute Infrastructure LP (Global Compute) on its agreement to acquire ATM S.A (ATM), the leading data center and communications infrastructure business in Poland, from a consortium of funds managed by MCI Capital, one of Poland's leading venture capital and private equity companies, and Mezzanine Management, an independent investment advisory firm

Representation of Infravia, the French infrastructure investor, and NGD's founders on the proposed sale of Next Generation Data (NGD) to Vantage Data Centers. NGD is a data centre business located in Newport, South Wales

Representation of Credit Suisse in relation to the sale and leaseback of its datacenter in New Jersey

Representation of IO Data Centers, LLC, a data center services company, which provides colocation and cloud services to businesses and governments worldwide in connection with its sale of its UK Data Centre Groups to Equinix (UK) Limited

Representation of Oaktree Capital Management, a leading global alternative investment management firm, on its sale of the SACO property portfolio, one of the UK's leading providers of serviced apartments with an extensive network of properties around the world, to Brookfield Asset Management

Representation of GIC on its investment in a hyperscale data centre in Jakarta in partnership with Polymer Connected, a Singapore-based data centre start-up operator

Representation of Credit Suisse on the cross border sale and leaseback of critical data center facilities in both London and Singapore to Iron Mountain

Representation of Blue Horizon Investor Limited, which is owned by an Abu Dhabi based family office, in connection with its acquisition of 10 Hammersmith Grove, a marquee commercial mixed use property located in London for £112 million

Awards and Recognition

Leading Individual – Real Estate – Commercial Property: Investment
Legal 500 UK, 2022

Certificate of Completion: Leadership in Law Firms
Harvard Law School Executive Education, September 2022

"James Dodsworth is extremely bright and accurate on technical matters and has a very pragmatic negotiating style."
Real Estate Big Ticket, Chambers UK 2022

Named in the Power 200 as one of 'The World's Most Influential Data Economy Leaders' of 2019.