News | Construction

Monday 8th January 2007

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP has hired Julia Court, a construction partner currently at Hammonds to join its real estate division as head of Non Contentious Construction. Her appointment takes the number of partners in SJ Berwin’s real estate division (including dedicated tax partners) to 23.

Julia Court qualified at Lovells, becoming an assistant in the Construction Department in 1990, subsequently acquiring wide experience as a construction sector lawyer.  She then joined Hammonds in 2000 where she has been a partner for 6 years. She has specialised in construction and led major projects for over 15 years.  Her experience includes construction work for Morley, including SJ Berwin’s own offices at 10 Queen Street Place, and other institutional players.  She has significant experience in the public sector, including on PFI, development and regeneration projects, acting for both private and public sector clients.

Julia’s brief will be to build on the flow of instructions from existing real estate clients of SJ Berwin on the non contentious construction side and to develop a roster of clients who will instruct the construction group directly, as well as continuing to provide support to real estate and corporate transactions.

Ian Insley, who has headed the Construction group since its inception, will remain head of Contentious Construction work, and will work on a number of special projects including the Quintain/ Wembley scheme and his aircraft related work.

Bryan Pickup, Head of SJ Berwin’s real estate division said, “Julia Court’s appointment alongside Ian will provide a big boost to our construction law offer to our clients and potential clients. Construction law input is increasingly important to the work of the Division, both in relation to investment acquisitions and sales, where due diligence is necessary, and more particularly on the complex documentation for the major development projects we are increasingly winning.”

He added, “We already have a very skilled senior associate in Julie Stagg and we believe Julia Court’s appointment will take the Construction Group to the next stage in its development, emulating the success seen by the rest of the real estate division. We are delighted to have attracted a partner of her calibre to the firm. We are very excited about the potential business development opportunities her appointment provides us.”

For further information please contact:

Bryan Pickup on +44 (0)20 7111 2468, email bryan.pickup@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 and Paris.
  
  
• SJ Berwin LLP was named ‘UK Firm of the Year’ at the 2005 Legal Week Awards.  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 118 staff of which 20 are partners in London and 50 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation and Real Estate Funds.  In addition, there are 3 dedicated real estate tax partners and 1 dedicated real estate partner in Paris.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and with the international 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 is 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.