Richard Hardwick is a partner in the firm’s global Finance practice. With more than three decades of experience, he advises banks and other financial institutions, investment funds, sponsors and borrowers on a broad range of domestic and cross-border financing transactions. His practice encompasses acquisition finance, real estate finance, corporate lending and complex banking and security matters. His real estate finance work includes investment and development financings and refinancings across a wide variety of real estate assets located in the UK and elsewhere.
Richard combines extensive transactional experience with a commercial and pragmatic approach. He has been recognised over many years by Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500 United Kingdom. Chambers & Partners has praised his meticulous attention to detail and his ability to “spot things we might have missed”. It has also described him as “very experienced” and “able to explain in layman's terms the reason behind the approach to something”.
The Legal 500 United Kingdom has described Richard as “great to work with” and “very client focused”, as well as “drilling down to the core of matters and giving clear, pragmatic advice” and having “excellent legal knowledge and commercial understanding”. Its 2025 edition described him as “an absolute joy to work with” and noted that he “regularly handles complex loan matters”.
More recently, The Legal 500 United Kingdom 2026 highlighted the breadth of Richard’s real estate finance knowledge across a variety of real estate assets. Clients also described him as “friendly, knowledgeable, pro-active and experienced”.
Richard was recommended in the 2016 and 2019–2027 editions of The Legal 500 United Kingdom and was recognised as an Other Noted Practitioner in the 2016 and 2020 editions of Chambers & Partners.
