Ed Crook

Ed is Chair of the Partnership and the firm's National Practice Group Chair for Property and Construction. He is a highly regarded commercial property and construction expert with over 30 years' experience.

He specialises in commercial property development, sales and leasing and all associated construction and finance work. Ed's client base is predominantly comprised of institutional property owners, including Goodman, Precinct, Auckland Airport, PSP (of Canada), Scentre Group, Winton Land and Guardians of NZ Superannuation.

Recent experience includes advising:

• Goodman in relation to all elements of its property acquisition, disposal and development. This has included
  • the acquisition of the former Villa Maria vineyard;
  • the acquisition of 3.2 hectares of industrial land at Bush Road, Albany and securing a development agreement with NZ Post;
  • the acquisition and development of Highbrook Business Park;
  • the development of the VXV Precinct in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter; the establishment of the joint venture between Goodman Property Trust and GIC (of Singapore) to own that precinct and the subsequent sale to Blackstone for $635m.
• Precinct in connection with the redevelopment of the Downtown Shopping Centre into Commercial Bay, a high rise office and retail development, integrated with the City Rail Link.
• Precinct on the sale of a half share in the ANZ Building for $181 million to a fund, and the subsequent sale of the remaining half share for $177 million.
• Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation in relation to its
  • $300 million residential development joint venture with Classic Builders;
  • acquisition of the Formosa Golf Resort and certain adjoining land through a limited partnership with Pipers Limited Partnership (a Russell Property Group entity).
• Auckland International Airport on the development of the Landing Business Park, and the redevelopment of the international terminal building and associated infrastructure.
• A JP Morgan managed fund on the establishment of the industrial fund, Industre, in a joint venture with Stride.
• PSP/CPPIB in relation to their New Zealand real estate portfolio including advising on the construction of the new Government Archives Building in Wellington.
• SkyCity on the property aspects of the New Zealand International Convention Centre.
• Scentre on the sale of the Westfield shopping centre at Pakuranga; Glenfield and West City.

LLB, BA (Honours First Class), MA, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.

Ed joined Russell McVeagh from UK law firm Herbert Smith in 1999. He has been a partner with Russell McVeagh since 2004.

Ed is recognised as a leading Real Estate lawyer by the Chambers and Partners 2023 Guide, Asialaw Profiles 2022 (also for Construction Law) and Expert Guides 2019. He was selected by his peers as 'Lawyer of the Year' in the Best Lawyers® 2022 New Zealand Guide in the field of Real Estate Law, and has also been recognised in their 2024 Guide. Ed features in the 'Hall of Fame' in the Legal 500 2022 Guide and was named New Zealand Real Estate Lawyer of the Year in 2018 and 2016 at the ILO Client Choice Awards and has been recognised by Doyles Guide 2020 as a pre-eminent lawyer for Property & Real Estate, and recommended for Construction, Projects & Infrastructure in 2018.

Client feedback in Chambers and Partners 2022 Legal Guide emphasised Ed's expertise in the Real Estate and Construction sector, stating Ed "is the best operator in the market and has laser-sharp intelligence. He cuts to the heart of the issue immediately, is good-humoured and tireless.", Ed "knows his stuff backwards ... If you have him in your corner, half the battle is won because of his stature."