SJ Berwin

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SJ Berwin was a pan-European corporate and commercial law firm. Its 'forte' was private equity (PE) and it lobbied for this industry.

In November 2013 SJBerwin merged with Asia Pacific firm King & Wood Mallesons to create a $1bn law firm headquartered in Asia. The new name King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin was used in the UK, Europe and the Middle East for a year until the SJBerwin part was dropped on 1 November 2014. [1]

Lobbying for private equity

SJ Berwin has been involved with industry lobbying organisations, the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) and European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA). SJ Berwin said: 'Our lawyers place themselves at the centre of the industry through our lobbying and support of the sector as a whole… SJ Berwin is at the core of European Private Equity.' SJ Berwin led the BVCA’s lobbying on the Companies Act.[2]

People

  • Simon Witney, lobbyist with SJ Berwin. He is also a member of the BVCA’s legal and technical committee. He has been heavily involved in lobbying national governments and the European Commission on issues related to private equity and corporate law.[3]
  • Jonathan Djanogly Conservative MP, partner in SJ Berwin. Formerly the Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Shadow Solicitor-General, Djanogly was Justice Minister from May 2010[4] until he lost his position in the 2012 September Cabinet reshuffle.
  • Richard Slowe

Former staff

Clients

PE clients include Barclays Equity, Apax Partners, and Bridgepoint Capital[5]

Contacts

10 Queen Street Place, London EC4R 1BE http://www.sjberwin.com

References

  1. Natalie Stanton, King & Wood Mallesons to ditch SJ Berwin name to mark first anniversary of merge, The Lawyer, 14 October 2013, accessed same day
  2. SJ Berwin website, accessed Nov 2008 (old website, link now broken)
  3. SJ Berwin website, accessed Feb 2009
  4. Rajeev Syal, "Jonathan Djanogly under pressure after admitting to spying on colleagues", The Guardian, 10.09.10, accessed 12.09.10
  5. SJ Berwin website, accessed Nov 2008