After all, none of this quartet of firms can be said to have been among the Legal Week Top 50’s star performers in recent years.
The difficulties of both Lovells, where senior partner John Young has been elected for a second term, and Dentons, which has re-elected managing partner Howard Morris for another term, have been well documented. At Lovells, Young faced accusations of dithering during seemingly interminable rounds of lockstep reviews, while questions still remain over the coherence of Dentons’ international strategy. At LG, where managing partner Penny Francis is stepping up to senior partner, profitability has stagnated in recent years after a strong showing at the turn of the century.
Of the four, Simmons has had the best of it in recent years, but managing partner Mark Dawkins is still some way from achieving his hopes of turning the firm into a serious corporate player.
There are, nevertheless, good reasons why all four of these leaders have received backing from their partnerships. All business leaders need time to stamp their mark on the companies they lead. At law firms, with their swathes of shareholder managers, this timescale is surely at the longer end of the spectrum. One term in office is rarely enough for leaders to make a difference, unless, as was the case with
The latest wave of reappointments are a recognition of this fact by partnerships whose votes represent an endorsement of where they want their firms to go, rather than an assessment of their leaders’ actual records.
At all four firms the term ‘work in progress’ springs to mind. Lovells and Simmons have been introducing measures to bolster individual partner contributions and raise profits. LG has made its first foray into a major overseas jurisdiction (
As long as these votes of approval do truly reflect a renewed sense of equilibrium — and not plain apathy or the lack of an alternative — the leaderships at all four firms may find it a lot easier to get things done during their second terms of office.