Goodwin Procter has elected technology co-head Anthony McCusker as its new chair, bringing to a close an 11-year stint by Robert Insolia at the helm of the Boston-based firm.

Silicon Valley-based McCusker will take over as chair on 1 October when Insolia, who became managing partner in 2012 before assuming the chairmanship in 2019, will return full-time to his real estate practice.

McCusker has been a partner at Goodwin for 13 years, having joined in 2010 from Gunderson Dettmer to launch the firm’s technology practice on the West Coast. 

He has held a number of leadership positions during his time at the firm, including chairing the Silicon Valley office and serving on the executive and allocations committees. He currently serves as co-chair of the technology group alongside Boston-based partners John Egan and Kenneth Gordon. His practice is focused on IPOs, venture financings and M&A for tech clients including Eventbrite, Atlassian and Clickhouse. 

“Goodwin’s success has been driven by relentlessly focusing on our strategy and our culture, and the partnership overwhelmingly feels Anthony is the right person to carry this torch forward,” said Insolia.

As chair McCusker is expected to drive the firm’s strategic initiatives and culture, working closely with managing partner Mark Bettencourt. The firm said he will focus on clients, talent and press relations, as well as on promoting the firm’s brand. 

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“Thanks to the trust our clients put in us and to the commitment of our lawyers and business professionals, Goodwin continues to be on an extraordinary trajectory,” said McCusker. “Rob has done an outstanding job building on the Goodwin promise to both our clients and our people, and I look forward to continuing with this build – along with all of us at the firm – in my role as chair.” 

He will take over following a concerted expansion effort by Goodwin under Insolia that has seen the firm grow headcount by 60% since October 2019. That expansion was fuelled by record deal activity within the Boston-based firm’s technology and life sciences client base which propelled it to the head of Refinitiv’s 2021 and 2022 global M&A rankings by volume.

Last year the firm also relocated private investment funds partner Greg Barclay and a team from Hong Kong to launch in Singapore and hired partners from firms including Sidley Austin and Reed Smith to launch a private equity-focused office in Munich. 

Goodwin said the launches were in line with its strategy to focus on litigation, regulatory and transactions advice across its core areas of life sciences, private equity, real estate, technology and financial services. 

Goodwin saw revenue cross the $2bn mark for the first time last year, when it rose 12.1% to hit $2.21bn. 

Profits per equity partner, however, slid 6.4% to $3.46m, which Insolia told American Lawyer would have been higher had the firm not grown its equity partner ranks by 8.5% over the course of the year to more than 280.  

Following a slow down in M&A work in the second half of 2022, the firm became one of several in the US to axe staff, announcing in January that it was cutting ‘approximately 5%’ of its ‘timekeeper’ and operations personnel' in order to bring staff levels in line with its anticipated workload for the year.

However, the firm has clocked up a strong Q1 deals performance relative to its rivals, according to data supplied by Refinitiv, topping the global ranking by deal count, working on 172 transactions, and achieving third place by value.