Spear’s Review

Ian Cooke is a property lawyer and partner at Keystone Law. For over 30 years, he has been advising UHNW clients from around the world on their London super-prime residential property investments.

During this time, Cooke says, he has travelled more than two million miles and spent countless hours on planes to get clients’ deals done. ‘When I read the data in the press talking about the demise of prime London, I look at what is going on on our desk, and it doesn’t seem like that to me,’ he adds during a recent catch-up with Spear’s. 

Certainly, Cooke’s transaction portfolio is enviable, and he has advised on acquisitions in The OWO, on Hertford Street and on The Bishops Avenue, more commonly referred to as ‘Billionaire’s Row’. 

Adviser Profile

Ian provides legal advice to UHNWs buying and selling luxury London houses and apartments: this has been the core of his practice and the reason he travels extensively around the world to support his clients.

He jointly runs the practice and team of associates with his business partner, Sakhjit Randhawa, who is also internationally recognised as one of the leading lawyers in this field. Two partners driving the business ensures optimum service to clients given the large, complex caseload they are responsible for. Ian and Sakhjit also advise top prime London property development companies selling luxury stock into international markets.

Transactions are high value, confidential, technically complex and often urgent. The best property always commands intense interest and competition from wealthy international buyers due to its scarcity. This complicated work must be navigated correctly, to a challenging timetable, to deliver a successful outcome to the client.

Ian is no stranger to super-prime London residential properties worth many tens of millions of pounds. A transaction often sees Ian (or Sakhjit) as the lead lawyer dealing internationally to conduct an orchestra comprising: the client’s private office in their country of origin; the property agents and surveyors in London; the tax advisers to the client, who are likely to be in various locations around the world; and the client’s lending bank – normally an international or private bank in London, the client’s country of domicile or possibly in the Channel Islands, Switzerland or Singapore.

Ian’s aims are simple: 1. To ensure the client secures a successful outcome; 2. To make sure no client of his is ever taken advantage of; 3. To take the strain away from the client – making the complex appear simple; 4. To conduct meticulous due diligence and deal structuring; 5. To do all swiftly given competition for best property.