Roger McDonald
- Experience
Roger is a Professional Support Lawyer in the Commercial Real Estate Team. Although he is based in London, he supports the team in every office.
Roger focuses on the training and development of our lawyers, but contributes in all areas of knowledge management, including research and advice on high level technical legal issues, writing for our publications and developing new technological applications for our practice.
Roger has many years’ experience of the practice of commercial property law as a Partner and then as a Senior Professional Support Lawyer. His particular expertise lies in the construction and development and hospitality sectors.
He has dealt with the sale, purchase and securitisation of pub chains and the management of portfolios of licensed premises. His experience includes the development and financing of theatres and cinemas, as well as hotels. He has seen through the construction and development of office headquarters for government agencies and banks, both by way of the acquisition of challenging brownfield sites and the refurbishment of buildings with listed status. Roger also has significant experience in the development and letting of major retail centres across the UK, including Europe’s largest shopping mall in Kent.
Roger was a Partner in the real estate department of a leading London firm with offices in the UK and Germany, then he led and managed the real estate professional support functions of two of the largest international law firms. In recent years, Roger has acted as a Legal Training Consultant to the University of Law and BPP University, the two leading legal training providers in the UK. Now, at Birketts, Roger uses all of his experience to assist and grow the firms wide-ranging commercial property practice and finds that he still comes across something new almost every day.
Roger obtained his degree in Law at Cambridge University and completed his solicitor’s exams at the College (now University) of Law in Chester. He qualified as a Solicitor in November 1989 in a leading construction law firm in London and then found his interests lay in the wider realm of dealing with all aspects of the commercial property world.
Roger obtained his degree in Law at Cambridge University and completed his solicitor’s exams at the College (now University) of Law in Chester. He qualified as a Solicitor in November 1989 in a leading construction law firm in London and then found his interests lay in the wider realm of dealing with all aspects of the commercial property world.
Roger’s other interests include gardening, his dog and the outdoors near his home on the Kent coast. However Roger’s main focus outside of work is on art. Having scribbled and sketched since he was a boy, he is now taking the time to practice so that he can produce drawings, watercolours and other paintings, as portraits, landscapes and still lifes that can actually be exhibited.