Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) co-chair Lisa Mayhew has been elected to serve another four years in the role. Meanwhile, current co-chair Therese Pritchard was ineligible to serve another term and is to be succeeded by St Louis transactional partner Steven Baumer.
The terms for Mayhew and Baumer begin 1 January 2020 and will run four years, with Pritchard set to return to her practice after not being eligible to seek another term. Both Mayhew and Pritchard had led their legacy firms going into the transatlantic merger to create BCLP, which was completed 3 April 2018.
However, terms of governance at the firm mean that upon reaching the age of 65, a partner is ineligible to run for senior management, meaning Pritchard was unable to seek an extension to her existing term.
Mayhew (pictured) was first elected managing partner of legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) in 2015, succeeding former managing partner and later senior partner Neville Eisenberg and beating the firm’s former corporate chief David Collins. The firm would not comment on whether Mayhew was contested by any other candidates in the recent election.
Meanwhile, incoming co-chair Baumer first joined legacy Bryan Cave in 1996, before going on to spearhead the firm’s global transactional practice. Commenting on her re-election, Mayhew told Legal Business: ‘In voting for me and Steve, the partnership is supporting the global strategy at the firm. There is a tone of collaboration here which means we’re all in this boat together.’
While the merger saw the combined entity edge into the top global top 50 in terms of revenue, LLP accounts from January of this year showed that legacy BLP was enduring a financial malaise before the merger, being hit with a 21% drop in profit and a 3% decline in revenue in the last full financial year before the union.
thomas.alan@legalbusiness.co.uk
For more on the leadership of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, read ‘Eyes on “the prize” – BCLP’s leaders on going all-in for transatlantic union’