Linklaters has elected M&A star Charlie Jacobs as its new senior partner, replacing Robert Elliott, who has held the role since 2011.
Jacobs triumphed after a three-way fight for the role, seeing off a challenge from M&A global co-head Jean-Pierre Blumberg in Antwerp and late entrant, London corporate partner Aedemar Comiskey.
Comiskey added her name to the runners and riders in January causing a stir as the potential first female senior partner at the magic circle.
Jacobs will take over from Elliott on 1 October for a five-year term.
Voting closed earlier today (23 May) with the partnership informed of the decision shortly after.
Jacobs was tipped as the favourite for the job from the off, when it emerged last year Elliott would not stand for a second term. He will now head up Linklaters’ partnership board and run the firm alongside former banking head Gideon Moore, who won a contested election for managing partner last autumn and stepped into the top job on 1 January.
His term as senior partner could see the firm revisit its approach to remuneration as Jacobs has hinted in the past he would be open to holding another lockstep review.
Jacobs is arguably the firm’s biggest player in corporate M&A and has advised on some of the biggest deals of the last 18 months including the SABMiller and AB InBev £71bn merger. Last year he joined the board of FTSE 100 mining company Fresnillo as an independent non-executive director.