Deborah Hughes
Counsel, Ashurst Advance, Legal
Glasgow
Introduction
Deborah leads Advance's EMEA and US real estate practice, harnessing technology, collaborative resourcing, and 20+ years' transactional experience to deliver smarter, faster legal solutions.
Deborah Hughes is the Advance practice lead for Real Estate across EMEA and the US, where she shapes and delivers modern legal service strategies for the firm’s real estate clients and strengthens cross-practice collaboration with the Real Estate Industry Group. A recognised authority in efficiency-led delivery, she designs and implements collaborative resourcing models and technology-enabled solutions that reduce cycle times, enhance transparency, and improve outcomes on complex mandates.
With 20+ years’ experience spanning development, retail leasing, and investment acquisitions for FTSE-listed companies, Deborah brings deep transactional experience combined with operational excellence. She leads multidisciplinary teams across legal operations, digital, e-discovery, and delivery to scale support for high-volume portfolios and complex projects, integrating process design, data, and automation to drive measurable value for clients.
Before joining Advance, Deborah was a partner at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP (formerly Dundas & Wilson CS LLP), where she advised on a broad spectrum of real estate transactions and built a reputation for pragmatic, business-focused advice.