The City firm has restructured the group into four separate divisions: commerce and technology; corporate and corporate tax; finance and corporate recovery; and pensions and employment.
The new groups join the firm’s existing tax and private capital, real estate and dispute resolution departments, giving the firm seven free-standing groups in total.
Intellectual property (IP) and technology partner Jonathan Riley takes responsibility for the commerce and technology group, while corporate and corporate tax will be headed by corporate partner Christopher Tite.
Finance partner Nick Turner will lead the finance and corporate recovery group and pensions and employment will be led by employment partner Yvonne Gallagher.
The firm has also overhauled the leadership of its three existing groups with Andrew Witts replacing Andrew Dobson as dispute resolution head and Anthony Thomson taking over the tax and private capital team.
Thompson replaces Andrew Young, who now spends much of his time in the firm’s newly-opened
The final change sees Jon Lloyd and Rabinder Chaggar replace Stephen Stephens at the helm of the real estate group.
Managing partner Hugh Maule (pictured), who previously headed the business and finance group as a whole, has overseen the revamp. Maule took over as managing partner in February, replacing current senior partner Penny Francis in the role.
The overhaul follows a period of sustained growth for the firm’s corporate practice, which has historically been overshadowed by the property department. The firm is focusing on expanding the group, which has doubled in size in the last four years.
Maule told Legal Week: “Having got to know the inner workings of the business and finance group it became obvious to me that the growth in corporate was much greater than in the rest of the group and was set to continue.
“It was important to make sure each of the groups built its own identity to set them on the course to continue growing.”
