Taylor Wessing has completed its management reshuffle with the election of the law firm’s litigation co-head Shane Gleghorn (pictured) to managing partner.
Gleghorn succeeds veteran managing partner Tim Eyles, who announced in December he would be stepping down days before the 1,000-lawyer firm elected Dominic FitzPatrick as its new senior partner, replacing Adam Marks after six years.
Eyles had been managing partner for nine years and was widely seen as effective at raising the top UK law firm’s profile and driving international expansion. Gleghorn’s election is effective from October on a three-year term.
Gleghorn joined the firm in 2006 and sits on its UK board. Eyles took Taylor Wessing’s helm in 2009 in the middle of a recession, and is credited with hugely expanding its international network and improving its brand. In the UK, the business grew 41% under Eyles’ watch, viewed as a credible performance for a top 50 practice, despite lagging the kind of expansion seen as broad peers such as Osborne Clarke and Fieldfisher.
Growth has also slowed lately. In the year to 30 April 2017, Taylor Wessing saw profit available for division among LLP members fall to £46.9m from £49.9m, despite a small 2% increase in turnover to £129.3m. The firm’s international businesses largely operate under separate profit centres.
Gleghorn’s appointment follows FitzPatrick’s election as senior partner, effective from December last year. Fitzpatrick is a private equity specialist and former head of the firm’s energy group, who has been a partner at the firm for 27 years.