Claibourne S. Harrison is an English and Texas qualified partner based in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s London office, focusing on private equity, real estate private equity and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Harrison has more than 15 years’ experience advising clients in the UK, across Europe and the United States on a wide range of corporate matters, including cross-border M&A.  He advises on private equity transactions across a number of sectors and real estate private equity, including joint ventures, corporate real estate and CRE loan portfolio acquisitions and financings.

Mr. Harrison has been recognized by The Legal 500 UK 2023 as a “Next Generation Partner” for Real Estate: Commercial Property – Investment, where clients describe him as “meticulous, quick-thinking and thorough. Has led several complicated deals, and very strong at moving the ball forward.” He was previously ranked by The Legal 500 UK 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018 as a “Next Generation Lawyer” for Real Estate: Commercial Property.

Mr. Harrison received his J.D. in 2003 from the Duke University School of Law, where he was the Managing Editor of the Duke Law Journal.  He graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1999.

He is admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and is also licensed by the State Bar of Texas.

Selected Experience

Recent transactions include advising:

• Ares Management (formerly AREA Property Partners) on several commercial property joint ventures in England
• Bruin Sports Capital on a number of transactions including its acquisitions of Massive Interactive, Inc. and Soulsight
• Colony Capital, LLC, in its purchase of Hôpital de la Tour, one of the largest private hospitals in Geneva, Switzerland, and Clinique de Carouge from HCA, Inc., one of the largest for-profit hospital operators in the US operating approximately 170 acute care, psychiatric, and rehabilitation hospitals in the US and abroad
• Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch, in connection with its acquisition of several real estate loan portfolios in the UK, Ireland and across Europe
• Fremont Realty Capital in relation to its acquisition of Porthaven Care Homes Group
• The Gores Group, LLC, in its acquisition and joint venture with Siemens AG in Siemens Enterprise Communications, a leading enterprise communications provider of unified communications, contact centres and secure networks with more than 14,000 employees worldwide
• Investcorp Bank BSC on the acquisition and financing of European real estate
• Meadow Partners on its acquisition, financing and recapitalisation of multiple UK real estate assets
• NetEase, Inc., a leading Chinese internet technology company, on its strategic investment in Improbable World Limited
• Northwood Investors on its acquisition of UK and Irish real estate assets and loans
• Oaktree Capital Management on a significant number of joint ventures, real estate acquisitions, disposals and financings in the UK and across Europe
• Serverside Group Limited, a U.K.-based digital card design and provider of innovative online marketing and printing solutions to the cards industry, in its sale of majority control to Gemalto N.V., an Euronext Paris listed company providing global digital security products
• Verne Global, a Icelandic based data centre provider, on a number of its investment rounds
• The We Company (formerly WeWork Companies, Inc.), Nuveen and PFA on their joint acquisition, financing and joint venture arrangements for Devonshire Square in London
• Zoopla Limited in its merger with the online property business of The Digital Property Group (owner of FindaProperty.com and Primelocation.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Daily Mail and General Trust plc
• A number of seed and early stage institutional investors in technology companies focused on gaming, consumer services and other technology enabled services in series seed, early and later stage investment rounds