The changes will see the majority of Ashurst’s senior leadership split between the multinational firm’s office in London and Australia, following the election of the firm’s first ever Australia-based global managing partner Paul Jenkins, who officially came into his new role this week. Ashurst’s London office is receiving its first ever managing partner in the form of Simon Beddow, who has hitherto served as co-head of the firm’s corporate division. Mr Beddow’s appointment brings Ashurst’s office managing partner headcount to three, with positions now created in London, Singapore and Sydney.
New roles
Two other new positions have been created. London-based partner Logan Mair has been named as the firm’s first ever head of clients, responsible for engineering the firm’s client and industry strategies. A head of innovation role has also been created to help support Ashurst services such as Ashurst Advanced. The innovation role will be co-headed by Glasgow-based Mike Polson and Sydney-based Jamie Ng.
Prioritising innovation
Mr Polson told Legal Business that the new roles reflect Mr Jenkins’ commitment to innovation at the firm: ‘He’s created these co-head roles so that there’s real recognition within the firm and externally that this is very important and one of our top priorities,’ he said. Mr Jenkins himself told Australasian Lawyer: 'Having a global management structure and team that helps drive forward greater entrepreneurialism and innovation and decisive delivery on strategy is key,' he said.
Sources: Australasian Lawyer; Legal Business; The Lawyer
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