SJ Berwin favours London in depleted promotions round
SJ Berwin has added five associates to its partnership, including four in London, in a round of promotions that is significantly smaller than last year’s.
Rob Day
The City firm has made up four London associates and one in Frankfurt, down on the eight it promoted last year (6 May 2011).
The drop follows the firm’s surprise move last autumn to make up four funds associates to the partnership outside the usual promotions season after the resignation of two funds partners and six associates for US firm Proskauer Rose (26 September 2011).
This spring’s annual promotions round sees corporate associates Warren Allan and Andrew Wingfield, IP/IT/commercial associate Manuela Finger, litigator Louise Freeman and finance associate Simon Fulbrook made up. All are based in London except Frankfurt associate Finger.
Allan, who focuses on both fund formation and fund-related transactions, is an addition to the firm’s investment funds partner offering, which was hit by the exit of partners Nigel van Zyl and Oliver Rochman to Proskauer last year (27 July 2011).
Separately, the firm has announced the hire of finance partner Wolfgang Graf von Schönborn from Paul Hastings, where he had been a partner in Frankfurt since 2008. He joins SJ Berwin’s Munich office.
SJ Berwin made up seven associates to the partnership in 2010 (20 April 2010) and six in 2009 (22 April 2009).
Managing partner Rob Day said of this year’s round: “Recognising, developing and promoting talent within our firm is a key part of our growth strategy, shown not only by the promotion of these five quality individuals but also our four funds promotions in September.
“They demonstrate the level of drive we see across the firm as we continue to execute our strategy to strengthen our core areas, grow our countercyclical practices and institutionalise our client relationships.”
