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SJ Berwin Named EVCA/Real Deals Law Firm of The Year in Paris

Thursday 25th November 2004

SJ Berwin is delighted to announce that it was named "Law Firm of the Year" at the EVCA/Real Deals Private Equity Awards in Paris last night. The award follows hard on the heels of us having been named "Legal Adviser of the Year" at the BVCA/Real Deals Awards for our work on the sale of Pantheon to Russell Investment Group.

The judges highlighted the firm's contribution to many innovations such as advising the UK government on its Enterprise Capital Funds initiative, and its involvement in developing a pan-European fund of funds structure and creating securitisation technology for the private equity industry. The judges also recognised the firm's string of buy-out deals completed this year.

Jonathan Blake collected the award with George Pinkham, head of our Paris office, on behalf of the European private equity team. Jonathan said "We are delighted to have received this award. We feel it is a reflection of the continued strength of our pan-European private equity team, and is another highlight in a year of fantastic achievements for the firm. We were also thrilled to see so many of our valued clients receiving awards at the ceremony, and offer them our warmest congratulations."

Notes:

• SJ Berwin is a full-service international legal practice with more than 450 lawyers across its offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• With a dedicated European private equity team comprising over 140 full-time corporate private equity lawyers together with support from its other departments, SJ Berwin advises clients on the full-range of private equity business, both in connection with the establishment of private equity funds and their associated incentive schemes, and on MBOs, MBIs, public-to-privates and venture capital investments.
• SJ Berwin's Paris office has just been named "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year" 2004 at the Finance and Law Awards in Paris. We were also named "Legal Adviser of the Year" at the BVCA/Real Deals Private Equity Awards 2004, and our Head of Private Equity, Jonathan Blake, was admitted to the "Hall of Fame" for his services to the private equity industry over the last 20 years. SJ Berwin won the Chambers Global Award for "Western Europe: Private Equity - Law firm of the Year" 2003, as well as the Acquisitions Monthly award for "Mid-Market Law Firm of the Year" 2003 and the European Venture Capital Journal Award for "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year: Firm & fund work". It was also recently ranked as the "World's Leading Firm for Private Funds Expertise" in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers 2003/4 and in 2004 was named at The European Private Equity Awards - for the third year running - "Best Law Firm (documentation)" by subscribers to PrivateEquityOnline and Private Equity Internationl.
• SJ Berwin won the European Venture Capital Journal Award for Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2000, Law Firm of the Year and Property Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2000, and Competition Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2000.

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