Beyond managing partner: Become a go-to expert in law firm management

Being managing partner doesn’t have to be the end of your career, nor does your last term in office have to be the end of the skills and knowledge you have built in law firm management. Tony Angel went from being firmwide managing partner of Linklaters to global co-chair and senior partner at DLA Piper. Many other managing partners of law firms have gone on to build successful careers as experts in law firm management after stepping away from the helm, including:

• Malcolm Shelton-Agar – formerly managing partner at DLA Phillips Fox, later chief operating officer at Allen & Gledhill, now chief executive officer at Jackson McDonald;

• Guy Vincent – formerly managing partner at Bower Cotton and Bircham Dyson Bell, now corporate partner at the latter;

• Guy Stobart – formerly managing partner at Burgess Salmon, now
  CEO at Kennedys;

• Alasdair Douglas – formerly senior
  and managing partner at Travers
  Smith, now chair of the City of
  London Law Society;

• Mark Dawkins – formerly global managing partner at Simmons & Simmons, now partner at Bingham McCutchen;

• Jason Rowley – formerly managing partner at Vizard Wyeth, later CEO at 12 King’s Bench Walk chambers and senior underwriting manager at Temple Legal Protection, now costs judge at the Royal Courts of Justice;

• Peter Alfandary – formerly managing partner at Warner Cranston, now a senior consultant at Reed Smith;

• Nigel Haddon – formerly managing partner at SAS Daniels, now a consultant to law firms;

• Nick Jarrett-Kerr – formerly chief executive partner at Bevan Ashford, now an advisor to law firms worldwide; and

• Tony Williams, formerly global managing partner at Clifford Chance, later global managing partner at Andersen Legal, now principal at Jomati Consultants.

If you think any of their career paths sound attractive, let’s consider how you, as managing partner, can also plan for the day that you will step down from your current position and start your next career as an expert in law firm management.

Transition plan

First, you will need to manage your endings and plan your transition into your new role. If your firm has been very successful under your leadership, you may experience reluctance from your partners to you stepping down.