SJ Berwin settles on three US best friends

SJ Berwin has compiled a definitive list of US best friends after several years of planning, choosing to focus on its relationships with three firms.

The firms on the roster are New York’s Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Silicon Valley’s Cooley Godward Kronish and Boston-headquartered Goodwin Procter.

An SJ Berwin source said: “We looked to identify which firms we’d been doing most with and which firms we felt we could deepen our relationship with.”

The relationships are not exclusive but do include lawyer secondments.

Paul Weiss and SJ Berwin worked together recently on CVC Capital Partners’ buyout of luggage company Samsonite, with the former advising the private equity house in the US while the latter gave UK advice.

The New York firm, which has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo, will complement SJ Berwin’s European coverage.

National firm Goodwin Procter is set to open a small London outpost with two partners from collapsed firm Heller Ehrman (The Lawyer.com, 24 October).

Cooley is headquartered in Palo Alto but, like Goodwin, has a network of offices across the US. The firm was recently reported to be interested in opening in London with former Heller partners (TheLawyer.com, 27 October).