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Jonathan Blake  Senior Partner
+44 (0)20 7111 2222
jonathan.blake@sjberwin.com

Jonathan Blake is the firm’s Senior Partner. Jonathan qualified in 1979 and has been a partner at SJ Berwin since 1982.

He advises private equity funds, investing institutions and management teams on management buy-outs, venture and development capital investments and related taxation issues. He has a particular specialisation in advising private equity and venture capital fund managers in Europe and globally on the structuring of venture capital funds, management companies and carried interest incentive arrangements. Clients include Apax, Cognetas, 3i, PAI, Lion Capital, Macquarie, Deutsche and Amadeus.

Jonathan is a former Council member of the British Venture Capital Association. Jonathan was also Chairman for 15 years of the Tax and Legal Committee of the (European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) in which capacity he produced and edited several publications on venture capital related matters across Europe.  Jonathan was responsible for negotiating with the Inland Revenue and Department of Trade and Industry the agreed statement and guidelines on the use of limited partnerships as venture capital investment funds.

In April 2004 Jonathan was admitted to the BVCA Private Equity “Hall of Fame” in recognition of his contribution to the private equity industry over the past two decades. This was a nomination by the whole of the private equity industry under the auspices of the BVCA and was voted on by 500 of the most prominent people in the UK private equity industry.  There were only three previous members of the BVCA Private Equity Hall of Fame and Jonathan is the only adviser ever to be given this tribute.

In April 2005, Jonathan was named Global Lawyer of the Year for Private Funds by The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. In October 2006, Jonathan was named as one of the “30 most influential people in global private equity” by the highly regarded industry journal Private Equity International. In December 2007, Jonathan was included in weekly legal journal, The Lawyer’s “Hall of Fame”. Jonathan has also been included in the 2008 edition of Who’s Who, the leading reference book, which contains biographies of noteworthy and influential individuals.