Eversheds has today (10 April) announced its new senior office partners across its London, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cardiff bases, with its highly-regarded joint head of UK financial services, Pamela Thompson, taking the helm in London.
Thompson will take over from incumbent City senior office partner (SOP) Anthony Arter, who has held the role for the last five years, when the appointments go live on 1 May.
Meanwhile in Newcastle, shipping head Stephen Mackin will take over from incumbent restructuring partner, Paul Dutton, who has held the role for two years and will now be undertaking a broader role within the northern corporate restructuring teams.
Elsewhere, Mark Fletcher will be assuming the role in Nottingham senior office partner from commercial partner James Fry, who has held the role for almost six years, while in Cardiff, real estate partner Kathryn Roberts will become head, taking the reins from Alan Meredith who has been office head for the last 14 years.
The new SOPs were appointed by chief executive Bruan Hughes after he and the outgoing SOPs consulted with the partners in each local office.
Hughes said: ‘The role of senior office partner is vitally important and while Alan, Anthony, James and Paul have performed the role in their own individual ways, they have all delivered on behalf of the business and created and maintained a necessary team ethos in their localities. I would like to record my thanks for everything that the SOP team have done over the years, it is very much appreciated. And of course, the very best of luck to their successors!’
Thompson has been widely acknowledged as a star performer at Eversheds – which last financial year saw group turnover increase nearly 3% from £366m to £376m, according to its LLP accounts in January. During the research for a profile on the firm published late last year –The ideal law firm for 2013? Eversheds hunts for its breakthrough – one ex-partner said: ‘Financial services has always done really well, predominantly down to Pamela Thompson who is utterly brilliant.’
During his time as London senior office partner Arter, who is also head of pensions, was intrinsic in spearheading and promoting a number of initiatives in the firm’s City base, including CSR projects with local communities and driving collaborations with key City institutions.
News of the appointments comes after the firm confirmed yesterday (9 April) that it would be joining the series of law firms asking partners to contribute capital in response to HM Revenue & Customs tax changes for limited liability partnerships, requesting that fixed-share partners make a contribution of 25% of their annual earnings, as well extending the voting rights for those partners.
francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk