Shoosmiths has appointed Simon Levine, the former international managing partner of DLA Piper, as strategic adviser to its board.
Levine, who spent 10 years at the helm of DLA Piper’s international LLP before standing down late last year, is expected to work closely with Shoosmiths’ board and executive team to shape the firm’s international growth, drive innovation and support transformation in line with the firm’s 2030 strategy.
Shoosmiths CEO, David Jackson, said Levine’s decision to work with the firm “speaks volumes about where Shoosmiths is headed and the kind of firm we want to be”.
Jackson added: “We’re building for the future. That means bold thinking about how law firms operate, how we continue to offer exceptional service and value to clients, how technology like AI will reshape our work, and ultimately what clients will expect next. Simon’s experience and values make him the ideal adviser to join our board as we navigate that future.”
Levine has a background in intellectual property, media and sports law and spent 20 years at DLA Piper, where he also served in leadership roles, including MD for groups and sectors and as a strategic innovation partner. He won a second term as international managing partner in 2018, which the firm later elected to extend by two years as it sought to maintain stability during the coronavirus pandemic.
DLA Piper increased revenue and profits in every year of Levine’s leadership, which also saw him work to reset the firm’s strategy and develop its culture and values, with a particular focus on both diversity and inclusion and sustainability and ESG.
Levine has joined Shoosmiths off the back of a record financial year for the firm in 2025, when it grew revenue 5% to just over £217m and profit per equity partner by 30% to exceed £1m for the first time. The firm said its 2030 strategy was delivering “tangible” results, owing to its focus on its key practice areas of corporate, real estate and litigation and its core sectors of technology, financial services, mobility, living and energy and infrastructure.
The firm added that Levine’s decision to join the firm “reflects a shared conviction that the legal profession is undergoing fundamental change, and that Shoosmiths is extremely well placed to define what comes next”.
Levine commented: “The legal sector is changing rapidly and will continue to do so over the next decade. Innovation, technology and the ability to offer new kinds of products and services, will play a central role in client demands.
“Shoosmiths is a firm with the ambition, an innovative mindset and the capability to build something truly different to deliver for clients in a more technologically enabled legal services world. It hasn’t yet made its move globally, which means it has the space to build something better suited to what clients will require over the next decade. That creates a rare opportunity: to build an international innovation-led law firm designed for the world we’re moving into, not the one we’re leaving behind.”
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