SJ Berwin bolsters depleted funds team with four partner promotions
SJ Berwin has made up four funds partners to plug the gap left following the exit of partners Nigel van Zyl and Oliver Rochman to Proskauer Rose.
Rob Day
Associates Shawn D’Aguiar, Ed Hall, Cindy Valentine and Laura Charkin all enter the partnership today following off-season internal promotions voted in on Friday (23 September).
Funds partners van Zyl and Rochman resigned in July to join Proskauer, the City firm’s former merger suitor, as first revealed by The Lawyer (27 July 2011).
The departures were followed by the exit of six funds associates to the US firm earlier this month (5 September 2011). None of today’s new partners had been heading for Proskauer.
SJ Berwin managing partner Rob Day said: “We’ll look to hire laterally if good opportunities present themselves. But our approach has always been one around internal talent.”
D’Aguiar focuses on private equity funds and emerging markets, especially India and China, while Hall specialises in private equity funds and some infrastructure funds.
Valentine’s focus is secondary transactions and funds activity in Africa. She has advised HgCapital, one of van Zyl’s main clients. Charkin is in the tax team and specialises in private fund structuring.
This is not the first time that SJ Berwin made up partners outside its normal promotions round. In November 2009 it promoted Vanessa Therrode and handed her responsibility for its structured finance practice following the departure of partner Brain Carne (16 November 2009).
View results 10 per page | 20 per page | 50 per page
Readers' comments (37)
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 12:02 pm
So SJB have handed the future of their flagship department to a lawyer qualified in 2006. Interesting
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Danno | 26-Sep-2011 1:34 pm
You'll never win anything with kids...
...but can you run a funds team with them?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
US Funds | 26-Sep-2011 1:36 pm
Having worked with Ed Hall on a few US funds, he really is the new talent SJB need to drive the practice. Congratulations!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 2:37 pm
They seem to have trained a lot of the quality funds lawyers around, so it's not surprising they promote internally.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anon | 26-Sep-2011 3:09 pm
I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, but this is a joke.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 3:09 pm
Shawn D'Aguiar has the biggest following and has a great future ahead of him.
Well done Shawn!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 3:50 pm
Fantastic news - Having worked with Ed and Shawn I can safely say that they are great lawyers and will almost definitely be a success.
Congratulations!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 4:09 pm
Have SJB attempted to flood this page with supportive comments in an attempt to cover up the fact that they have just promoted a bunch of 4/5 year pqe lawyers to partnership?
However good they may be, and I'm sure they are good, there was a reason they were not partners last week, and a reason why they would not (in normal circumstances) have been made partners in May 2012.
Let's hope for SJB's sake that giving the children a partner badge each for them to play with and show their friends in the playground will be enough to fool the clients that they retain a significant London funds practice.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 4:11 pm
Shawn will be a fantastic addition to the partnership - an excellent choice by the partners of SJ Berwin! Incredibly well-deserved and about time!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 4:30 pm
Dear Anonymous @4:09
They are not 'a bunch of 4/5 year qualifieds'. I'm not sure what the modern treatment for jaundice is, but I'd suggest you hop off somewhere with a big bag of it.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
bobby smith | 26-Sep-2011 4:35 pm
DON'T PANIC MR MANNERING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, you just did.....
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Stephen | 26-Sep-2011 4:37 pm
If SJ Berwin had put as much effort into running their firm properly (and treating their staff decently) over the past decade, as they are doing into flooding this discussion board with comments then perhaps the firm would not be in existential crisis.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Sep-2011 5:37 pm
Cindy Valentine – Qualified May 2009
Shawn D’Aguiar – Qualified in December 2007
Ed Hall – Qualified September 2006
Laura Charkin – Qualified September 2002
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Oliver | 26-Sep-2011 7:02 pm
But Stephen, you must remember, its far harder to run a firm properly AND treat staff decently than to just flood a page with comments.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Julian Hedgefund | 26-Sep-2011 9:30 pm
There's a reason the firm has become know as SJ Blagwin...
It must have the most hyperactive PR department in the City.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 27-Sep-2011 10:38 am
grown adults with so much animosity, such a sad sight.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 27-Sep-2011 10:53 am
Cindy and Shawn qualified in other jurisdictions and spent time practising there and at SJB before qualifying in the UK, so they're not as junior as the Law Society website might suggest. So many haters out there!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Ricky Dunn | 27-Sep-2011 11:47 am
I think a few people are a little bit bitter and jealous, all those long hours in the office, no life, 10yrs pqe + and still not a partner! Ma ha!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 27-Sep-2011 12:14 pm
PR is now the only thing which SJ Berwin excels at. The firm wont exist in 10 years' time, it is falling apart at increasing speed before our eyes. This was actually their marquee practice and it is now a laughing stock.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 27-Sep-2011 12:57 pm
As a senior funds lawyer myself, qualified in both the US and the UK, I can without hesitation confirm that these four are probably the brightest, most talented team that exists either side of the Atlantic.
SJB will undoubtedly be the firm of choice for all funds business for the foreseeable future, and any negative comments here are quite clearly from the `little people' at other firms that are running scared.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment