How ‘Different Leadership Skills’ Are Prevailing in Big Law

As 2024 draws to a close, the legal industry is reflecting on leadership changes at several large law firms, and what this year’s shakeups may signal for the year ahead.

In 2023 the industry saw a number of significant changes, with at least 30 large law firms announcing leadership transitions. It may be difficult to predict what 2025 will bring, but a look to 2024 leadership changes in Big Law may be a signal of things to come.

This year kicked off with a major change at Am Law 200 firm Armstrong Teasdale, which announced on Jan. 2 that it elected corporate partner Richard Engel Jr. as its managing partner, replacing Patrick Rasche, a partner in the intellectual property practice who led the firm since 2021.

Also in January, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton announced that it named employment partner Kevin Cloutier to serve as the firm’s co-managing partner to replace Robert Beall, who was in that role for 18 years.

At the time, The American Lawyer reported that the leadership changes at Armstrong Teasdale and Sheppard Mullin came as some of the 2023 departures were viewed as abrupt and unexpected. But has a certain level of change now come to be expected?

“Change is happening faster than ever in the industry (and) the navigation of industry change requires different leadership skills,” said Kirsten Keegan Vasquez, a partner and vice president with legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey and Africa. “Law firms are looking to leaders with proven leadership and management experience rather than relying on long and deep success in law practice as leadership criteria.”

While not an exhaustive list, some other leadership changes announced in 2024 include:

• The naming of Ishan Bhabha as new co-managing partner of Jenner & Block, effective January 2025;
• The election of Timothy Mungovan as chair of Proskauer Rose, replacing Steven M. Ellis, who stepped down after four years due to health issues;
• The March election of Kenneth Rosh as chair of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, which came after former chair David Greenwald stepped down earlier this year;
• The election of Steve D’Amore to chair Winston & Strawn, replacing former chair Tom Fitzgerald after 17 years;
• The naming of new Cooley CEO Rachel Proffitt, effective in January. Proffitt made history as the Am Law 200 firm’s first-ever female CEO;
• In a similar first, Aliki Sofis this year was named the first-ever female managing partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Boston office.

This year has shown, and next year is also poised to show, that large firms are particularly interested in bringing aboard top leaders who have proven experience managing remote workforces, who have a keen eye toward technology adoption, who have experience with diverse employee and client populations, and who are dedicated to improving the use and overall view of social media as a tool to improve both recruiting and firm business, Vasquez said.

“Bottom line, the set of law firm leaders who have been in place for the last five, 10 and in some cases 20 years or more are transferring the laboring leadership oar to a wave of proven leaders with proficiency in managing a multi-generational workforce, rapid change, and new buying behavior on behalf of law firm clients and prospective partners,” she said.

One example of evolving firm leadership in Big Law is the increasing addition of chief growth officers into the C-suite, with firms that are hiring for these roles recognizing that “growth is a priority and must be strategic to maximize success,” Vasquez said.

“Growing organically is no longer enough,” she said. “Those CGO’s also recognize that their firms’ processes must be agile enough to be opportunistic. With the addition of skills in strategic leadership, those CGO roles have elevated the traditional internal recruiting function to a voice (at the) executive management table.”

According to Kent Zimmermann, Big Law leadership change in recent years reflects that running these large law firms has become more challenging, because most firms have grown “considerably” in size and complexity and because of the increased competition for talent, all of which leads to a growing imperative to raise profitability.

The balance can be challenging, said Zimmermann, a partner with legal consultancy Zeughauser Group, because firms continue to juggle competing priorities.

“Doing those things has also necessitated building consensus around other sensitive decisions, such as approach to compensation and partnership structure,” he said. “That degree of change … is often very challenging in a flat organization like a law firm. There’s often a lot of important constituencies to keep happy who don’t always see everything the same way.”

All of these various factors have, over the last few years, helped cause an “unusual number of chairs and managing partners to step down in the middle of their term,” he said.