The office will now be organised along practice group lines, with the two firms’ legacy City heads - Peter Sharp of LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae and Dewey Ballantine’s Fred Gander - returning to full-time fee earning. The firm’s practice groups include M&A, litigation, intellectual property litigation, international trade, capital markets, tax and bankruptcy.
In a related move, firmwide chair Steve Davis is to increase the amount of time he spends in London to between one and two weeks a month. Davis confirmed that the firm will continue to have local managing partners in smaller offices outside the US.
Dewey & LeBoeuf called in McKinsey in July to advise on the firms' tie-up, which went live on 1 October.
Despite axing the London top role, the firm said growth of the City office - which now houses nearly 200 fee earners and is among the largest City offices of any US law firm - remains a priority.
Commenting on the change, one head of a rival US firm said: “If you’re trying to really build a business globally, there is an argument for driving it through practice groups. One area where they may run into difficulties, though, is when they need to find someone to speak for the office.”
He added: “McKinsey’s success has really come through having these extremely strong practice groups, so you can see why they recommend this.”
Under the new structure, Gander and Sharp will each retain some management responsibilities, having both bagged places on the firm’s global executive committee.
Both Sharp, an insurance litigation specialist, and tax expert Gander could yet also find themselves named as practice group heads, with a number of key appointments likely to be made in the next month.
Dewey & LeBoeuf is not alone in running its London operation from the US. Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft decided in March not to replace office head Andrew Wilkinson when he quit the firm for Goldman Sachs. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton also chooses not to have a formal head of its London office.
In 2004 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer called in McKinsey to look at its finance practice, with the firm ultimately drawing up a shortlist of 10 target banks from which to win work.
