Private client-focused Withers has re-appointed its longstanding managing director Margaret Robertson (pictured) for another three-year term following an uncontested election last week.
Signalling Robertson’s popularity across the 150-strong partnership, the firm’s constitution stipulates that candidates require a 75% majority vote to take the role, even if uncontested.
Having trained at the firm, Robertson has served in multiple management roles including as head of litigation in 1992 before going on to become strategy partner in 2000. During this period she steered the firm through its 2002 merger with Connecticut-based law firm Bergman, Horowitz & Reynolds to form Withers Bergman in the US while it converted to LLP status in the UK.
Robertson became sole managing director in 2007 and has overseen the firm’s internationalisation in recent years, including the opening of 10 offices across America, Asia and Europe.
The most recent included establishing a Tokyo tax practice – Withers Japan, Zeirishi Houjin (Withers Japan) – this month; the opening of three new offices in the US with the hire of a nine-partner team in May, the majority of which came from McKenna Long & Aldridge ahead of its combination with Dentons; forging a formal law alliance with Singaporean law firm KhattarWong; and the launch of a presence in Australia, creating Withers SBL through an alliance with tax practice Balazs Lazanas & Welch and corporate boutique SBL Shmith in December 2014. Such rapid expansion is part of the firm’s strategy to push into key markets for high net worth clients.
On the re-appointment of Robertson, the firm’s chair, Ivan Sacks, said: ‘Margaret has been absolutely instrumental in the firm’s growth during her time as managing partner, and we are delighted that she has been re-elected to continue to lead Withers during this exciting period of development in our international footprint.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
