UK firm SJ Berwin loses real estate team as merger talks continue

The head of real estate at SJ Berwin has resigned to join Irwin Mitchell, along with a team of three other partners. John Vivian, Jo Footitt, Lewis Myers and Rob Thompson offered little in the way of concrete explanation for the move, but it is rumoured that the reason for the departure is a dissatisfaction – shared by many partners at SJ Berwin – over the drawn out merger discussions with US firm Proskauer Rose. A spokesman for SJB said that "we are disappointed that Jon, Jo, Rob and Lewis decided to leave us, but we remain fully committed to real estate and will continue to serve the sector with a very strong team, led by Bryan Pickup and Simon Ricketts, with 13 London partners, and a widening international network".

UK firm SJ Berwin loses real estate team as merger talks continue rollonfriday.com Fri, Oct 1, 2010