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).
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
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Danno | 26-Sep-2011 1:34 pm
You'll never win anything with kids...
...but can you run a funds team with them?
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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!
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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.
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Anon | 26-Sep-2011 3:09 pm
I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, but this is a joke.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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bobby smith | 26-Sep-2011 4:35 pm
DON'T PANIC MR MANNERING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, you just did.....
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Anonymous | 27-Sep-2011 10:38 am
grown adults with so much animosity, such a sad sight.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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Anonymous | 27-Sep-2011 1:13 pm
Anonymous | 27-Sep-2011 12:57 pm is quite right.
I'm surprised that the four of them have not yet been snapped up to lead the world out of the current economic crisis, pave the way for world peace or win gold at the 2012 Olympics in the 4x100m relay.
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Danno | 27-Sep-2011 2:54 pm
I bet those 4 didn't think they'd be partners so quickly.
It's almost heartening.
Almost.
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Anonymous | 28-Sep-2011 3:25 am
As a former SJB who doesn't particularly like the firm, I have to say that Ed and Shawn are both excellent. Partners would routinely come in to pick their (scarily big) brains and they were effectively acting as partners on their respective cases. It is a bit quick but good luck to them.
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Anonymous | 28-Sep-2011 4:51 pm
Anonymous@3:25am - and what about Cindy V?
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Anonymous | 28-Sep-2011 4:52 pm
There must be a LOT of disgruntled senior associates who are (a) more qualified and (b) more deserving than these four for partnership. I wonder if these four were even in consideration last year? I suspect not.
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The Pipelayer | 28-Sep-2011 5:16 pm
Julian Hedgefund - Everytime there is any press even remotely linked to SJ Berwin, it seems that you cannot resist making some type of disparaging remark. It makes sense that such a level of animosity must be based on something significant. Just out of curiosity, are you:
a) a disgruntled ex SJB employee;
b) a lawyer at a competitor firm; or
c) still angry that Jonathan Blake spurned your drunken advances at a PE drinks event.
Thanks
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Richard | 28-Sep-2011 6:10 pm
Until this week, my view of the firm was one of ambivalence at best but this latest decision smacks of nothing more than stupidity. Any firm who promotes someone to partnership who has less than 5 years PQE has lost its grip on reality.
I am in touch with several senior associates at SJB who are extremely unhappy with the recent promotions and have started exploring alternative options. The question now is when they will leave, not if they will leave.
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Anonymous | 28-Sep-2011 9:26 pm
There are a lot of disgruntled senior associates who are more qualified and deserving. That's the real shame here.
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Anonymous | 29-Sep-2011 2:56 am
Anonymous@4.52pm, I never worked with Cindy so can't really comment. It was a huge team at SJB funds (although this has obviously changed now).
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Julian Hedgefund | 29-Sep-2011 2:40 pm
Cindy was a paralegal in Construction until 2007.
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Anonymous | 29-Sep-2011 10:16 pm
If Nigel had not left Cindy and Shawn would never have even made partner... They were not even close. Ed is a bright spark, but only 5 yrs pqe. Ridiculous decision and clients will see through this pretty immediately.
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Anonymous | 29-Sep-2011 10:26 pm
This is sheer panic. Sheer panic. Contrary to SJB's above self inserted comments - the promotions are not richly deserved at all. If they were then these individuals would have been in the promotions position for this or last year. They were not in last year's round nor expected to be in this year's round... Panic.
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Anonymous | 29-Sep-2011 10:32 pm
The funny thing is that the firm panicked. Day could have agreed not to panic in this perceived crisis. Wrong decision.
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Anonymous | 6-Oct-2011 8:53 pm
I've just joined the contruction team at SJB. So, if I transfer to the funds team it seems that I can be made up as a partner in just four years. Time to move!
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disgruntled litigator | 6-Oct-2011 9:03 pm
More updates. Do not, repeat, do not, join any other department within SJB other than the funds team. It's the only department that will make you up.
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high street lawyer | 6-Oct-2011 9:13 pm
It's that bad. So, high st lawyers should be asking to join the SJB funds team. This is surely a long term sustainable area for SJB. SJB is being run by J Blake.
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Pie Man | 6-Oct-2011 9:18 pm
I'd love to be a fly on the wall and see how these amazing and expert 'partners' are accepted amongt the members...
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