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)
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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