Hill Dickinson announces head of health real estate

Leading health law firm Hill Dickinson has announced the hire of real estate partner James Atkins, who joins the firm’s Leeds office as its national head of health real estate.

An experienced health real estate lawyer, Atkins advises a wide range of organisations, including NHS and independent healthcare providers, national NHS organisations, local commissioning bodies and developers of health infrastructure.

In addition to the management of routine estates work for a range of NHS organisations, Atkins also advises on innovative or complex health infrastructure development, the reconfiguration of health estate and projects involving the disposal of former NHS facilities, including the imposition of overage and clawback arrangements. 

He is a leading specialist on the rules for funding and development of primary care premises and regularly advises commissioners and GPs on their application. Atkins has also been at the forefront of the development of integrated health and wellbeing facilities that provide a range of health and social care services, often by joint venture arrangement between the NHS and local authorities. 

Welcoming James to Hill Dickinson, Andrew Craggs, head of the firm’s Health Group, said: 

“We have added significant capacity to our health real estate team in the past 12 months to the point that it is now a substantial revenue generator for the firm in its own right. Appointing James to head up the team with a brief to lead and further develop our growth strategy is our next step forward and we are delighted to have him on board.

“James will head a growing national team that has already seen a number of appointments in recent months, including partner Emma Brecknock, senior associate Rachel Jones in Leeds, as well as partner Andrea Proudlock in Newcastle. Together, they are ideally placed to assist our many existing public and private healthcare clients across the country.”

Commenting on his appointment, James Atkins said:

“Hill Dickinson has long stood at the forefront of the health legal sector, and I am thrilled to join the experienced and talented team to head up its health real estate offering. At a time when demand for private and public healthcare services continues to grow rapidly, the healthcare estate can either be an enabler of or a barrier to change. I am looking forward to working with the growing team to advise clients across the country on a range of day-to-day and transformational health infrastructure projects and also to  working alongside specialist health sector colleagues throughout the firm to deliver an exceptional service to our client base.”

Atkins was previously a health real estate partner and head of Bevan Brittan’s Leeds office. He is the author of many standard legal documents currently used by national NHS bodies.