News & Events | News

Monday 12th November 2007

Leading European law firm SJ Berwin LLP has appointed Jon Vivian to be the new Head of its Real Estate Division, from 1st January 2008.  Jon, who joined the firm in 2001 specialises in investment and development work and leads the teams for a number of key real estate clients, including Brixton plc, Gazeley, The Crown Estate, Prestbury, Redevco and CBRE Investors.

He replaces current Real Estate Division Head, Bryan Pickup who has led the Division for 10 years and will be concentrating on client work, particularly for The Crown Estate and Candy and Candy.  Bryan has also taken on, with corporate partner Laura O’Neill, firmwide responsibility for graduate recruitment and trainee development.

Under Bryan’s leadership, SJ Berwin’s real estate division has gone from strength to strength.  This year it showed an increase in turnover of 21% to over £35 million (May 2007), a five-fold increase in 10 years, and now consists of 150 staff in London of which 23 are partners and over 70 are associates, encompassing Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning and Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds, Hotels and Tax.  In addition, real estate is rapidly expanding in the firm’s continental European offices.  The Division has recently been boosted by being placed in the first tier categories in this year’s Legal 500 for its work in property investment, development and hotels, and by the recent recruitment of Stephen Hughes, a partner from Olswang who will be starting at the firm in March 2008.

Jon Vivian commented, "This is a fantastic opportunity.  Bryan has done a great job with the Division and my aim is to build on this even further.  I am determined to continue to be very active with my clients, combining this with my new role.  I very much look forward to the challenge to make the Real Estate Division pre-eminent on a pan-European basis."

For further information please contact:

Jon Vivian on +44 (0)20 7111 2809, email jon.vivian@sjberwin.com  or Karen Roberts on +44 (0)20 7111 2578, email karen.roberts@sjberwin.com  

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership.  SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.
   
• SJ Berwin LLP was named ‘UK Firm of the Year’ at the 2005 Legal Week Awards on 30 November.  The award recognised SJ Berwin’s five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
   
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 150 staff  in London of which 23 are partners (3 of which are tax partners) ,and over 70 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax.  In addition, there are 3 partners specialising in real estate in our Continental European offices.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross departmental activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and also cross border / pan European real estate work, with our European offices.  The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
   
• The Real Estate Team was Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005.  It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction, the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
   
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.