Slaughters’ senior partner race also underway
‘There’s no-one else,’ mused one ex-Linklaters partner. ‘If Charlie Jacobs isn’t the next senior partner at Linklaters, it would be a bigger upset than UKIP winning the next general election. If I was Ladbrokes, I’d give better odds for Farage for PM than any of Charlie’s rivals at Linklaters.’
Linklaters’ partners are buoyant over the prospect of their big-ticket deal man taking on the role of senior partner when Robert Elliott finishes a five-year term on 30 September 2016. Having joined the Magic Circle firm 25 years ago as an articled clerk, Jacobs has wide support and is enjoying the return to form of the firm’s corporate group. ‘He’s a popular guy and a figurehead for the firm globally,’ says one Linklaters partner. ‘Everybody wants to tie their ribbon to him as, if he does become senior partner, he decides who the next managing partner will be.’
With finance and projects chief Michael Kent and global M&A co-head Jean-Pierre Blumberg having also sounded out support for a run at the senior partner role, Jacobs is not without competition. Indeed, Jacobs was voted off the firm’s governance body he now hopes to chair in early 2012, removed from the international board in ‘dramatic style as he was blamed for the partner cull in 2011’.
‘I’d give better odds for Farage for PM than any of Charlie’s rivals at Linklaters.’
The ex-partner adds: ‘Charlie suffered from that, as it was done without a proper mandate in a way which partners were unhappy with, and has since become very astute at managing his reputation internally.’
Since then, Jacobs has avoided taking on any new management roles with the top job in mind. Viewed electable by the firm’s influential banking group, recent management appointments, such as Stuart Bedford to London head of corporate and Sarah Wiggins as global head of sectors, have been labelled by one insider as ‘moves anointed by Jacobs’ as he marches towards the senior partner role.
Linklaters is not the only Magic Circle firm with electioneering underway, as Slaughter and May’s senior partner Chris Saul confirmed to the partnership he will stand down next year. As Legal Business went to press, several names, including corporate head Andy Ryde and Nilufer von Bismarck, head of equity capital markets, were being talked of as potential contenders. A vote is expected in early 2016.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk