Mayer Brown elects new chair in top-level revamp

Mayer Brown's partner committee has selected Herbert 'Bert' Krueger to replace James Holzhauer as firm chairman, pending a partnership vote later this month, reports The National Law Journal.

Krueger, who is based in Chicago, will become chairman of the firm this June under a new governance structure, if the partners vote in favour of the changes, the firm said in a statement.

Holzhauer said in March said he was stepping down from the post for health reasons and because he had grown weary of the heavy travel schedule associated with the job.

"Mayer Brown's policy and planning committee, the firm's governing body, has nominated Herbert (Bert) Krueger as chairman," the firm said in a brief statement. "The partnership will vote in mid-April to approve a new governance structure for the firm and Mr Krueger as its chairman."

The new structure with a single chairman to lead the firm would replace a troika-style leadership that Mayer Brown has had since June 2007 when it appointed Holzhauer as the chairman with two vice chairmen, Paul Maher in London and Kenneth Geller in Washington DC. The structure was criticised by some partners who left the firm as being unwieldy and less focused.

Krueger, who is a University of Chicago law school graduate, focuses his practice on private equity, employment law and executive compensation issues. He has been on the firm's committee since 1989.

He will take the helm of Mayer Brown as it attempts to weather the effects of the downturn, which has hit the firm's financial and structured finance groups hard.

Last week the Anglo-American firm announced that it is cutting 45 lawyers and 90 administrative assistants in the US, while a London restructuring could also see up to 55 employees laid off in the UK.

As part of the cost-cutting measures, the firm also this month asked some US income partners and counsel lawyers to take reduced pay and/or reduced schedules; while last November, the firm cut 33 lawyers in the US.

The National Law Journal is a US sister title of Legal Week.

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