Latham & Watkins’ shortlist of candidates to replace former chair Bill Voge spans four offices and six practice areas and includes two female representatives. But have they got what it takes to lead the world’s biggest law firm?
Of particular interest is Los Angeles managing partner Jeff Greenberg, who lost out to Voge in 2014. In Los Angeles, Greenberg manages a partner group of 70 but his other leadership roles have seen him working with finance partners across the US. He is a former vice-chair of the country’s finance group and ex-member of Latham’s executive committee.
Greenberg is the most similar contender to Voge, which explains why he was pipped to the post four years ago. He hails from a similar practice area, acting for financial institutions and private equity sponsors on oil and gas finance projects. The majority of his deals are US-focused though, which could cost him the international vote. In contrast Voge had been global chair of finance and head of the project finance, putting him in contact with partners across the network.
All the other nominees have, or still do, hold global leadership roles, except Washington DC investigations partner Alice Fisher. She is a current member of Latham’s executive committee and leading figure in the firm’s white-collar group. She was even rumoured to have been on the list of candidates for the FBI director position, but is understood to have pulled out of the race earlier this year.
Fisher is one of two women up for the chair role, but should not be confused with corporate partner Ora Fisher who is not understood to be vying for the job. This is in spite of Ora Fisher’s promotion to interim co-chair with Richard Trobman after Voge stood down. A partner described California-based Ora Fisher as “low-key”, which rather explains her omission from the list of candidates.
The only other woman in contention is New York managing partner Michèle Penzer. As head of the New York office, Penzer has a distinct advantage in the race with responsibility for Latham’s prized US office of 138 partners, nearly the double the headcount of LA.
She has all the hallmarks of a future leader, doing her time as the firm’s co-chair of banking and leading both the diversity and associates committee. During her role in charge, Penzer helped to found Women Enriching Business, a firmwide initiative developed to help give women the tools to develop networks and business development skills. Having been unwittingly dragged into a sex scandal involving its former chair, Latham could do well with Penzer at the helm.
Penzer’s practice is similar to London’s Richard Trobman, the only non-US candidate. He is likely to get the vote in Europe having been brought over to Latham’s City outpost in 2001 to revive the firm’s capital markets offering. But his influence may fall short in the US; he shares similar clients with Penzer including Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, and he’s been largely responsible for hires in EMEA, not the Americas.
There are two corporate candidates up for election; former chair of the global group and Washington DC partner Dan Lennon and deal-doer Charles Ruck, who splits his time between New York and Orange County. Both have different sorts of clients, with Lennon acting for the traditional private equity houses Carlyle, Onex and Platinum Equity. Ruck is more active on the digital side, just yesterday completing a deal for T-Mobile directors on its $146bn merger with Sprint
James Gorton was also on the T-Mobile deal team as Latham’s co-chair of communications. He is chair of the firm’s strategic client committee, putting him in charge of its relationships with core clients. Gorton’s background puts him at odds with the other contenders, joining Latham in 2001 from telecoms company Global Crossing where he was general counsel. Prior to that he worked at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
IP chair Bob Steinberg, a partner in Washington DC and Los Angeles, completes the list. Like Gorton, Steinberg had a life before Latham as chairman of security software company xSides Corporation and as a partner at Irell & Manella. His experience both outside law and at another firm may hold him in good stead as a leadership all-rounder.
Latham declined to comment on the elections process.
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