Twelve lawyers follow SJ Berwin real estate chief to Irwin Mitchell

The 12 associates, along with four support staff, will join the four partners, led by Vivian, who joined Irwin Mitchell in September. The quartet was completed by Jo Footitt, Lewis Myers and Rob Thompson.

Three of the 12 will become partners at their new firm. They are real estate lawyer Rupert Dowdell, construction expert David Parton and finance lawyer Simon Tweedle.

Irwin Mitchell head of business Niall Baker said: “This demonstrates the strength of our firm and the strategic direction we’ve laid out, and is a further sign of our rapidly growing reputation in the business and corporate market in London and nationally.

“The news that Jon was joining us was significant in itself, but the fact that we’ve been able to attract such a large number of high quality recruits into our London team shows that Irwin Mitchell is now firmly on the map as a leading provider of real estate legal advice.”

Last week saw the departure of two further partners from SJ Berwin. Property litigation chief Michael Metliss has joined Berwin Leighton Paisner while competition partner Niamh Grogan will go in-house at Lloyds Banking Group next month (8 November 2010).