Ex SJ Berwin management candidate to launch PE practice for Reed Smith
Former SJ Berwin managing partner candidate Perry Yam has quit the firm to join Reed Smith in one of the longest-awaited moves in the City legal market.
Perry Yam
Yam, who is believed to be have been in talks with the US firm for two years, is understood to have resigned from the City firm yesterday and is moving to launch Reed Smith’s London private equity practice.
It is understood that he will be building the team, but is not currently taking any SJ Berwin partners or associates with him.
Yam stood for SJ Berwin managing partner last year, losing out to Rob Day (22 October 2010) after leading following the first round of voting (1 November 2010). He had been tipped to leave the firm for a long time after an acrimonious election process.
Reed Smith does not currently have a dedicated private equity practice in London, although corporate partners Peter Teare and funds partner Oliver s’Jacob have practices that touch on the private equity industry.
SJ Berwin lost key funds partners Nigel van Zyl and Oliver Rochman to former merger suitor Proskauer Rose earlier this year (27 July 2011), with six associates later leaving to join the US firm (5 September 2011).
Last autumn real estate head Jon Vivian led a four-partner property exodus to Irwin Mitchell (27 September 2010), while this summer competition head StephenKon is understood to have resigned from the firm after being voted into the partnership at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, only to be persuaded to stay (14 July 2011).
The firm hired Andrew Bliss in structured finance from Sidley Austin in October (13 October 2011) and aims to increase the size of its finance practice significantly (7 November 2011).
Reed Smith declined to comment. SJ Berwin did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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Readers' comments (12)
Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 2:46 pm
Inevitable ...
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Julian Hedgefund | 14-Dec-2011 2:49 pm
Long-awaited. That's putting it mildly.
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Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 3:02 pm
He was completely misunderstood in the SJB organisation and sorely undermined by the ever-powerful but out-of-date SJB management who squashed his attempts to be MP.
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Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 3:38 pm
SJ Berwin goes from strength to strength... Amazing management and performance, no doubt the stuff of future MBA case studies.
And just as important, all achieved whilst treating staff decently.
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Julian Hedgefund | 14-Dec-2011 3:54 pm
The real Julian Hedgefund here, who combines eloquence with incisive comment.
My take: Perry has wanted to set up his own practice for a while and this gives him a great opportunity to do that.
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Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 4:05 pm
Big loss for SJB.
A consistently high billing partner that brings in all his own work.
Would love to see a list of all the partners that have left SJB in the last 5 years. There have been some very good people walk out of that door.
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Lunch time o'booze | 14-Dec-2011 4:30 pm
Is it true that all SJB lawyers (are forced to) eat lunch together every day in the staff restaurant?
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Dragonfly | 15-Dec-2011 2:57 am
Perry is a good guy and good luck to him. He has an independent streak that helped him and SJB to develop an entrepreneurial approach in the earlier days. I guess that as SJB tries to become more gown up, Perry felt he could thrive in a different firm.
As to the comment on the staff canteen, the firm has from its earliest days offered all lawyers and more latterly all staff, a free lunch. Staff are not forced to eat luch with each other every day, staff may choose to eat wherever they like. The fact is that most people like a free lunch. How do these myths get established?
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TheLawMap | 15-Dec-2011 8:38 am
There seems to be new revelations about SJB every month and if not even more frequent. I don't think that bad publicity is always 'publicity' in the legal field.
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Anonymous | 15-Dec-2011 9:34 am
Any clues on which associates might follow?
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