White & Case has filled the remaining place on its partnership committee with
London missing out entirely on any of the firmwide management positions.
London projects partner Philip Stopford this week lost out to New York tax partner James Hayden for the final post on the committee, which deals with new partners and compensation matters.
The decision, which was made through a vote of the partnership over recent weeks, means that five of the eight partners on the committee are from the US while there are no representatives from London, France or Germany, which combined account for around 40% of the firm’s revenues. London is the firm’s second largest office.
Hayden’s appointment, which is effective immediately, comes around two weeks after the firm voted New York corporate partner Neal Grenley onto the committee. The pair join partners Ian Forrester (Brussels), Tim Goodell (New York), Petri Haussila (Helsinki), David Koschik (New York), Carolyn Lamm (Washington) and Jan Matejcek (Prague), whose positions were confirmed at the beginning of October.
The firm’s offices in London, France and Germany also failed to secure a presence on the firm’s top board, the executive committee.
The US firm’s newly-elected chairman Hugh Verrier has relocated to New York from Moscow. He has appointed New York partners Tony Kahn and Dimitrios Drivas and Istanbul corporate partner Asli Basgoz onto the executive committee.
A raft of London partners are thought to have been initially in contention for the partnership committee, including litigators John Bellhouse and Alistair Graham, with banking partners Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz also believed to have been in the running.
A White & Case spokesman said: “Because of the way in which they are selected, geography is not really a factor. The committees are only two components, albeit important ones, of the broader office and practice management structure at White & Case.”
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