The delayed election will mean that the office of former managing partner William Boss, who resigned in January one year before the end of his term, will be left unoccupied for almost twelve months before a successor is chosen. An ongoing divisional restructure is set to deliver big changes to the Hong Kong-based firm's practice groups in the UK and EMEA region. Global managing partner Stuart Fuller said: 'The divisional heads will be managing a considerable amount of the practice of the firm, so we decided to hold off on appointing a new managing partner for some time and will revisit it once we're bedded down in a new structure.'
Regional woes
The EMEA arm has hit several stumbling blocks in the two years since emerging from KWM's tie-up with City outfit SJ Berwin. Mr Boss' surprise resignation from the firm was shortly followed by the departure of chief operating officer Rachel Reid, who side-stepped into the same role at Taylor Wessing. Almost 10 per cent of the firm's London equity partnership were culled last year, all of them understood to be legacy SJ Berwin lawyers.
Streamlining
The new KWM divisional structure will see the firm's current 17 practice areas condensed down into three 'core' areas of focus: corporate, funds and finance; dispute resolution and regulation; and real estate. According to EMEA senior partner Stephen Kon, the new practice structure 'will bring more client focus' to the firm by '[creating] a more flexible workforce that can draw out the firm's synergies.' Despite growth in total referrals, performance across the firm's practice groups in the UK, Europe and the Middle East was lacklustre in the last financial year. Overall, global revenue at the firm inched down 1 per cent last year to $1.02 billion.
Source: The Lawyer; Legal Business
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