Travers Smith today (16 November) confirmed Kathleen Russ has been re-elected as senior partner for a second term, starting 1 July 2023.
Russ first took on the role in July 2019 when she succeeded long term leader Chris Hale. She has been a tax partner since 2001 and led the tax team from July 2007 to January 2017. Russ also contributed to firm strategy as a member of Travers’ partnership board.
She will be at the helm for another two years, alongside Edmund Reed, who has been managing partner since 2021, at a challenging time for the firm. For the financial year 2021/22, it recorded a slowdown in revenue and 9% drop in PEP from £1.22m to £1.105m which Reed attributed to the impact of economic volatility, exacerbated by its later financial year end of 30 June. This followed its recovery in 2021 from an 11% slump in net profit and 20% fall in profit per equity partner which accompanied its 1% revenue drop in 2019/20.
Russ (pictured) said: ‘The last few years have thrown up a number of challenges no one could have anticipated, and as we move beyond the pandemic, but into increasingly uncertain economic times, it is more important than ever that we focus on investing in our future and our people, and driving forwards our acceleration in our three core areas of focus: in the international alternative asset management sector, in cross-border mergers and acquisitions and in our global disputes and investigations work.
‘I have a deep-seated belief in the power of the team, the power of effective collaboration and in the power of harnessing and nurturing talent and I believe we do all these things exceptionally well at Travers Smith – this is our culture and this is what makes the firm truly great, and a wonderful place to work.’
Despite the economic headwinds, the firm has continued to attract impressive volumes of transactional work. Since 2020, the firm has acted in more than 130 private and public M&A transactions and over 30 equity capital markets transactions. It also handled over 160 private equity backed transactions since 2020, including Inflexion’s sale of Medivet to CVC which resulted in the firm’s recent recognition of Private Equity Team of the Year at Legal Business’ 2022 awards.
In fact, Travers – for the second year in a row – picked up two wins at this year’s awards. The second was in the prestigious Commercial Litigation category for its ‘substantially successful’ representation of HP in protracted fraud claims against Mike Lynch and Sushovan Hussain arising out of HP’s acquisition of Autonomy, a FTSE100 software company, in 2011.
The firm also promoted a record 11 new partners in July 2022 with the majority across the three core areas of focus highlighted by Russ.
On the ESG front, the firm hired its first pro bono partners and rolled out the Mindful Business Charter commitments during Russ’ first term. She also chair’s the diversity and inclusion board.
Reed added: ‘Kath has done a fantastic job as senior partner over the last few years and I am delighted she has been re-appointed for a second term. Her re-election signals the stability and continuity of the firm’s leadership and the confidence of the partnership in the firm’s direction, particularly reassuring in the turbulent times we are all living through. I am excited to continue working closely on the ambitious projects and initiatives we have already embarked upon together.’
