The judges singled out SJ Berwin's work advising on the £127m acquisition of Milton Gate in the City of London for the complexity of the work and its unusual financing.

The team, which was led by partner David Ryland, advised investment house Evans Randall on its joint venture with Al Salam Bank, a Bahrain-based Islamic bank, to acquire and finance Addleshaw Goddard's new 200,000 sq ft City offices. It was one of the largest City of London office transactions this year.

Al Salam's portion of the funding was provided in accordance with Shariah principles. The senior debt was provided by Abbey National Treasury Services and Deutsche Genossenschafts-Hypothekenbank. There were three key elements to the transaction.

The team was required to design a structure to implement Al Salam Bank's mezzanine financing that could be put to Al Salam's Shariah board for approval. SJ Berwin's London-based Islamic finance group led by Puzant Merdinian played a key part of this process, which also involved Herbert Smith's Dubai-based Islamic finance team.

Alongside this process, SJ Berwin also advised on the creation of the joint venture vehicle between Evans Randall and Al Salam Bank as well as the real estate and construction aspects of property's acquisition. The deal was completed in approximately three weeks and is likely to act as a benchmark for many future deals due to the difficulty of gaining funding from traditional sources. It drew on the firm's real estate, construction, corporate, tax and finance capabilities.

An array of other law firms were involved in the transaction including Herbert Smith, Bedell Cristin, Ogier, Taylor Wessing and Berwin Leighton Paisner. Evans Randall's deputy chief executive, Kent Gardner, praised Ryland and his 'talented' team for their technical ability, commercial approach and speed.