Rain men – goodbye Harvard Kool-Aid, hello plain speaking at Linklaters’ c-suite

With high-billing duo Charlie Jacobs and Gideon Moore taking the helm at Linklaters there is renewed swagger on Silk Street. Will it be enough to revive the City leader after a troubled post-Lehman run?

For a young South African who saw law as a stepping stone to business, Charlie Jacobs has had quite a journey. Something of an anomaly at Linklaters in the early 1990s, when even by the standards of the City elite, the firm was ‘stiff and English’, Jacobs found the place ‘a bit intimidating’ in the early years. But if he truly lacked confidence then, he hid it well. Now, after nearly a decade as Linklaters’ unrivalled corporate star, the youthful-looking 50-year old has this month begun his role as the City giant’s new senior partner for a five-year term.