Ashurst has appointed its first Australian-based managing partner, with finance co-head Paul Jenkins set to take on the role from June.
Jenkins will replace the firm’s current managing partner James Collis, who revealed earlier this year he would be stepping down from the position to return to the finance practice.
The Sydney-based partner is due to be in the role until June 2020, in which time the firm will also have to elect or re-elect its chairman – a post currently held by Ben Tidswell.
Jenkins is practically a Blake Dawson “lifer”, having joined the firm’s Sydney office in 1996.
After three years, he moved over to Clifford Chance in London, before returning to the Asia Pacific region in 2000 as an associate in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Tokyo office.
Jenkins returned to Blake Dawson in 2003 and became a partner in 2006. He was then involved in the firm’s merger discussions with Ashurst from 2011 and was appointed co-head of finance in 2013 alongside Paris-based partner Laurent Mabilat.
As managing partner, Jenkins is set to split his time between London and Australia, spending a significant amount of time travelling between the firm’s offices around the world.
“I will be working with James in the transitional period as well as getting out to partners in as many offices as possible to talk about my priorities and goals,” Jenkins told The Lawyer.
“I see myself as someone who is consultative and to whom partners can easily talk to. But I can also be decisive when I need to be, as a law firm is run on those tough decisions.”
Ashurst is the latest firm to announce management changes in the last six months, along with Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Slaughter and May. But while these firms held election processes, Ashurst appointed Jenkins as managing partner following a board decision.
The board is made up of members including Tidswell, vice chairman Mary Padbury and CFO Brian Dunlop. When Collis announced he would step down, the board appointed an adviser to help it with its search and compiled a long list of internal and external candidates with legal and non-legal backgrounds.