Mayer Brown’s London-based vice-chair Paul Maher has been overlooked in the firm’s management rejig with his US-based counterpart winning the newly created role of firmwide managing partner.
Paul Maher
As expected, the firm has elected Bert Krueger as its new chairman as part of a management overhaul that has seen it create a seven member management committee and 12 member partnership board.
London senior partner Sean Connolly has won a position on the management committee while Maher’s co-vice-chair Ken Geller, who is based in Washington DC, is to become the firm’s global managing partner.
The roles will become effective on 1 June.
The new structure replaces a triumvirate leadership structure that has seen chairman Jim Holzhauer and vice-chairs Maher and Geller run the firm along with a 16-member policy and planning committee.
This week’s issue of The Lawyer revealed the new management structure and the fact that the vice-chair role would be abolished (13 April).
According to Holzhauer the changes mark a watershed for Mayer Brown. He said: “The management committee which will have most of the authority now vested in policy and planning will be the small, nimble group needed to respond quickly and decisively to changing market conditions and capitalise more fully on the inherent strengths of our global platform.”
Under the governance structure London-based European real estate head Jeremy Clay has won a place on the partnership board.
Members of the management committee:
Palo Alto partner Cabel Chinnis
London head Sean Connolly
New York partner Paul Jorissen
Paris head Jean-Phiippe Lambert
Hong Kong partner Elaine Yo
Chicago partner Paul Theiss
Chairman Bert Krueger
Members of the partnership board together with management committee:
London partner Jeremy Clay
Charlotte partner Carol Hitselberger
Chicago partner Michelle Odorizzi
Washington DC partner Peter White
Frankfurt partner Jorg Wulfken
Good grief – why are we trying to embarrass people? So he didn’t make the top job – does that mean we should subject him to an “The Apprentice” type article about who failed? What the next headline – “Lawyer suffers miscarriage”? Let’s raise our standards and try not to crush people.
In response to the comment by “Surprised”, I think the point of the article is as much what it doesn’t say as for as what it does. For the last decade and a bit Paul Maher has been driving forward what was a sleepy, going nowhere fast, medium-sized London corporate firm. He is a very ambitious man. If there is no longer a place for him at the top table at Mayer Brown, there may just be a place set for him somewhere else.
A message for Mr Kruegger and to those who have campaigned against Maher.
Mayer Brown is going to have to face up to serious problems. Paul Maher has been the positive force behind what is now the unified firm of Mayer Brown for over the last decade and beyond.
It was Maher who was initially approached by Mayer Brown and Platt for a merger with Rowe and Maw; moreover it was Maher who lead the negotiation team with JSM. Looking in from the outside it looks as if Maher is being pushed into the shadows. Whilst this will cause costly for the development of Mayer Brown, I do wonder if Mayer may have a legal case against his colleagues. After all if it was not for him would the current legal giant of Mayer Brown exist? Moreover, Mayer Brown claims to be an International law firm, do you think the previous ‘P and P’ as it was known and the current management structure resembles this. Actually has this unified firm even had a chairman who is not from the United States? No.
As the ex- Rowe & Maw lawyer says, (perhaps the old senior partner) Maher will have offers from other law firms and when he does decide to join another firm which he inevitably will, then London will not only loose top partners but also a big chunk of their current corporate business, perhaps all of it.
Mayer Brown has made a big mistake that will prove very costly.
Mayer Brown looks very unstable; it is not clear whether it will stay as a unified firm.
One thing that is certain though, is that Paul Maher will come out on top in an unforgiving way.
By the way Maher did not write this message
from anonymous?
Maher divides opinion but you can’t deny he has been the driving force behind Mayer Brown in Europe for years. I suspect the traditional Chicago core of the firm liked the success but were not so keen on power being concentrated anywhere other than Chicago.
He was tipped to be next chairman which would have been positive for London. Kruegger’s election changes everything.
Has he honestly divided opinion. I believe he was voted back into his role last year with well over 75% of the partnership. I would like to see Mr Kruegger’s figures. Mayer Brown has stabbed him in the back.
Mr Connolly would not be where he is today without Maher’s support, i do hope he backs Maher in what is a difficult time for him.
Moreover Maher has a hugely loyal set of clients who generate millions of pounds for Mayer Brown.
After this post can those who are loyal to Maher please express their view below.
Mayer Brown have probably pushed their best partner out of the door. I have worked with Maher and if he leaves the firm i think it will mark the start of a big downfall for Mayer Brown.
Great news for Mayer Brown London, they get the best man in the firm back from beating his head against clapboard siding in the Mid-west (if he stays). Having sat at the table with Maher he’s an awesome talent, and has wasted the last three years trying to catch up the firms standstill period when it let the likes of Orrick, Latham and Kirkland get the jump on becoming members of the international elite.
I agree if he’s back in London then great. However unfortunately i don’t think he’ll stay. He is better than just a standard London Partner. I think he’ll see his new role at Mayer Brown as too much of a step down. Everything should be done to keep him at the firm.
The whole thing is a joke. Does the current management committee not realize he will leave the firm. We can not afford this, especially in these times. Take it from someone who has worked with him. The firm should act quickly to offer him a deal he can’t resist or i am sure they will look back and be sorry.
Mayer Brown may have just made their biggest mistake to date. Anyone who knows Maher will tell you that he is far too ambitious and dynamically minded to be satisfyed with his new role whatever it will encompass.
Having worked and closely watched his personal progress for over 15 years i am deeply upset and angered that he should be repayed in this way.
Paul Maher is an immensely talented, energetic, ambitious and driven lawyer who has been the catalyst for much of the growth Mayer Brown enjoyed since the R & M merger. But ambition and drive can easily be the enemies of collegiality and teamwork. The line is unquestionably fuzzy, but there is one. The new leadership apparently concluded, together with a lot of MB partners who left voluntarily over the past two years, that he had crossed it. It’s too bad, both for Paul and the firm, that it has come to this. I’ve no doubt Paul will do well; I’m not so sure about the firm, particularly since by chosing a 61 year old as its next chairman it seems unable or unwilling to pass the leadership mantle to a new generation.
To put a little balance here… Mayer is not what his supporters above would have people believe. He was a divisive person (with an outsized pay packet) in a firm that called out for leadership and collegiality. He delivered none of that (whilst paying himself an enourmous amount of money). His “success” with the London office was based on clients he claimed as his own (even though he stated all clients were firm clients) but most have now left (abeit, in some cases, due to takeovers). Many consider him a difficult (I can’t print the real description) person who is not well liked (although he may have some respect), both inside and outside London. He rose on the back of the financial sucess of London (measured in dollar terms), however with the falling pound and disappearing work (not to mention the realisation that London far under performed other London offices) the emperor’s clothes have been revealed.
The firm appears to be taking a very rash approach with regard to its management structure; it is less than two years since the leadership troika was put in place and its being abolished already.
Concerning Maher, his future at Mayer Brown looks as if it will depend upon his role; as it currently stands he surely will not stay. If Mayer Brown does not offer Maher a better position then their actions will be put down in History as suicidal.
One does begin to wonder in which direction the firm is heading.
mayer brown’s hk strategy is a joke. the combination is anything but a name / empty shell. big deals did not come thru the door as expected. bearing in mind its hk operation is losing throngs of partners and associates over the past months.
Having worked at Mayer Brown for nearly 7 years, I am utterly shocked by the way Paul has been ousted. Paul engineered the merger so it was just that and ensured that London retained its autonomy. Paul Maher is a formidable character; a machine who never sleeps or eats: watching him in meetings is an inspiration. With this following the associate redundancies which people thought the firm would avoid, MB associates are wondering what on earth will happen next.
In response to the comment posted on the 17th at 10:32 there is a need for some truth.
On the subject of Maher’s pay is he overpaid for what he does? It is well publicised that there are lawyers of International law firms earning 3-4 million pounds a year. Maher probably earns about a third of this; an amount well deserved for the effort and talent he brings to Mayer Brown. If anything, he is underpaid for what he does.
Concerning Maher’s clients, they are all incredibly loyal to him and would be disgusted by the notion proclaimed by this previous blogger. Having worked with Maher for years I can tell you the vast majority of his clients will follow him in whatever direction he chooses take.
Finally, with regard to London it has been well documented that he gave up his position of senior partner in order to focus on the firm globally. Thus the success of London has not been totally in his hands. Despite this London is still one of Mayer Brown’s better performing offices.
Having worked with Maher, I can categorically reveal he is not difficult by nature; just very passionate and energetic.
Not sure why people think posting on an internet blog will help Maher. People should concentrate their efforts elsewhere.
Maher doesn’t need help. He clearly has a brilliant reputation, a great client base and a lot of support; something many top firms will pick up on.
Mayer Brown for sure set to fail. Some partners at this firm are full of ego and think they are “the legal brain”. Check out the partner Chris Langford who thinks too highly of himself.
Maher, you can do better than this firm!! We miss you, but your good ideas may be better somewhere else than with this bunch of so called “legal brains”. According to their decisions they have no legal brains at all.
The problem with Paul Maher is that there comes a time when life gets too short to live with him. He is incredibly talented and clear thinking but like many star players his personality gets in the way. He will certainly leave, why should he stay when he cannot now achieve his ambition? The only reason he stayed in the late 1990s was because he had a chance to do just that. I suspect he may even have a more fulfillling role outside of the law with fewer frustrations. His ultimate fate was inevitable. A shame.
Paul, having worked with you; I can genuinely say you’re the most talented out there. Don’t let this chapter in your career get to you. I know you’ll show those who doubt you how wrong they are.
I completely disagree on the point of Maher’s personality, his ambition to run a law firm at the top level has undoubtedly been the source of his inspiration for his entire career; without motivation people wouldn’t achieve anything. Maher is without a doubt the hardest working individual I’ve come across and after all he has done for Mayer Brown he deserves the top job.
Mayer Brown need a chairman who is capable of driving the firm forward if they want to achieve their goal of becoming an elite International firm; not a 61 year old.
I thought they were now called Maher Brown.
No i don’t think so, the last time i checked it was Mayer Brown
Maher appears to be keeping different company already. He was spotted on a BA flight to NYC last night in animated conversation with David Cheyne. ……
I knew work was slack, but I’m amazed that so many presumably City lawyers have nothing better to do with their time than comment on some non-event like this.
Will the last one to leave please turn off the lights?
non-event??