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).
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Readers' comments (37)
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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