DLA Piper has appointed Paul Gray as a partner in the Real Estate Finance team, part of the Finance & Projects Group. Paul starts at the firm's London office today and joins from Sidley Austin where he was a senior associate in the Global Finance Group.

Paul specialises in highly leveraged real estate and structured finance transactions but has a broad practice incorporating general banking, structured finance and capital markets transactions. He also acts on the restructuring of existing leveraged loans (including securitised loans) and CMBS issuances (including synthetic CMBS).

Clients that Paul advises include private equity houses, hedge funds, institutional investors, banks and other financial institutions (including loan servicing companies). His representations are spread evenly along the capital structure but he has particularly strong relationships with mezzanine finance providers.

Toby Barker, UK Head of Real Estate Finance at DLA Piper, said: "We are delighted to welcome Paul to the team. His significant expertise in structured financings, which increasingly characterise the real estate finance market, make him a real asset to the team and will be very beneficial to our clients."

Charles Morrison, International Head of Finance & Projects at DLA Piper, said: "The firm is committed to investing in our Finance practice and the hire of Paul, shortly following that of Laurence Rogers, is a significant boost to our Real Estate Finance team. Structured finance is a fast developing area of the real estate market and the work Paul specialises in complements our existing Structured Finance practice."