In a move that set tongues wagging on both sides of the pond, DLA Piper senior partner and global co-chair Juan Picón is to depart for Latham & Watkins, while Ropes & Gray has selected its first-ever female chair to replace the long-serving Bradford Malt.
Picón’s move to the highest-grossing firm in the world from the one that used to hold that position was fuelled by his desire to spend more time in his native Spain. As such, Picón will take over the role of Latham’s managing partner in the country following the retirement of predecessor José Luis Blanco. He joins at the end of the year from DLA’s Madrid office, bringing corporate partners Ignacio Gómez-Sancha and José Antonio Sánchez-Dafos with him.
Picón is leaving DLA less than two years into his term as senior partner, after revealing to Legal Business earlier this year that he spent 220 days outside Spain in 2016 away from his family. He said at the time: ‘I am old enough now to know that I would do things differently if I started again and I try to convey that to the younger generation. You can be a successful lawyer and organise yourself in a different way.’
DLA’s global co-chief executive Simon Levine, who is a friend of Picón, said the firm was ‘disappointed’ by his decision to leave, but ‘we recognise the unique personal circumstances that have led him to make this decision’.
Veteran dispute resolution partner Janet Legrand has taken over Picón’s duties at DLA on an interim basis until a senior partner election takes place.
‘Juan is a super-smart partner and his departure will be a loss.’
One former DLA Piper partner told Legal Business: ‘It’s always a surprise when someone in a leadership position moves on to a different firm. Juan is a super-smart partner and his departure will be a loss. But DLA is a big firm and a great firm, and they will get through this setback.’
In a separate leadership switch, Ropes has named its first female chair in its 152-year history, with former securities and public companies group head Julie Jones set to take the reins in 2020.
She will replace current chair, Malt, who will retire. In the two-year interim, private equity titan Jones will serve as chair-elect and work closely with Malt and the firm’s managing partner David Chapin.
During her career at Ropes, Jones has acted on a number of big-ticket private equity deals, including the 2005 $11.5bn leveraged buyout of SunGard Data Systems by a consortium of leading private equity houses.
Malt said that Jones is ‘the perfect person to lead Ropes & Gray into the future’, describing her as ‘an exceptionally talented leader, an impressive attorney and a wonderful person’.