Incoming Dickie Dees senior partner to put ABSs at centre of strategy
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Dickinson Dees’ newly elected senior partner John Marshall has said the firm’s management team will reassess its business strategy to deal with the challenges posed by alternative business structures (ABSs).
Marshall was elected to the position following a ballot on 19 March, beating tax partner George Lyall and corporate partner John Flynn to the post.
Marshall, who has been with the firm since joining as a trainee in 1989, will take up the three-year post on 1 April.
“In common with the rest of the profession we’ve experienced a challenging trading period,” he said.
“The market has been difficult and the feeling now is that it’s the right time for us to be looking outwards and upwards, and at what shape business we want to have.
“We’ll be looking at what we’re doing as a national business and what opportunities there are for us to get involved in international work,” he added.
Marshall, who currently heads the firm’s commercial disputes team, said the introduction of ABSs was an opportunity for the firm to reassess its strategy, and that it needed to be “fleet of foot” to meet the challenges it presented.
“Even now it’s comparatively early days and it’s difficult to distil fact from rumour,” he said.
“It’s unlikely firms in the City will take up ABSs, but it’s also likely some firms in the regions will be involved as a means of achieving growth.
“As far as we’re concerned we certainly have no fixed plans, but are conscious of the fact others may well have, and we need a strategy in place to deal with it.”
Marshall will replace Robin Bloom as senior partner.
Bloom announced last year that he was leaving to head the legal team at Teeside-based Gibson O’Neill, which owns freight company Bulkhaul and the hotel, spa and golf club Rockliffe Hall.
Craig Monty will take over Marshall’s position as head of commercial disputes.
The firm’s announcement came as Jonathan Blair was re-elected as managing partner until September 2014.
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Readers' comments (45)
Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 2:24 pm
Who are Dickinson Dees?
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 4:35 pm
What does it matter who is senior partner / managing partner? Isn't it just an old geordie gentlemens club anyway? Where has the investment been in the last 20 years (York, Middlesbrough and an office in London with no lawyers). Where is the vision? Where are the leaders? Where are the strategic lateral hires and strategic merger opportunities? Newcastle, York and Middlesbrough will never be important legal centres.
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 4:38 pm
Oh please, even I have heard of them.
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 4:39 pm
I woud politely suggest to John Marshall that the best first step may be to address the fact that in many departments Dickinson Dees has more partners than assistants.
When the recession kicked in, Dickinson Dees reacted in an innovative way - by getting rid of troughs of good young assistants but leaving many under-performing partners in place.
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 4:59 pm
The poster who said it is an "old geordie gentlemen's club" has it spot on.
The firm is stuck in a 1970s mindset and I can't see that changing. They love talking big but innovative to this bunch means getting a new two partner office in an industrial park near Berwick upon Tweed.
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 5:55 pm
Who are Dickinson Dees?
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 5:57 pm
Everyone loves a dreamer. Most firms expanded a few years ago. Now Dickinson Dees are thinking about doing this eight years too late.
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 7:23 pm
Q. Who are Dickinson Dees?
A. They are are the 79th biggest legal services provider in England, meaning in football terms they are Lincoln City FC. Dickinson Dees is currently the fourth best performing law firm (by PEP) in the city of Newcastle behind firms such as Muckles (think Tamworth Town FC). The firm claims its unique selling point is its people, which is unfortunate as they appear to have voted in a new Senior Partner solely on the basis that he has a snappy three letter acronym to solve Dickinson Dees's deep rooted problems.
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 7:26 pm
Ten years ago they were probably in the same league as the big Leeds and Manchester firms like Pinsents, Booth & Co, Addleshaws, Hammonds etc but those firms had the foresight and drive to push forwards and build up very credible London and national practices to compete with DLA and Eversheds. Compare their growth and market profile to DD now? Middlesbrough, York, Berwick? Where next? Whitley Bay?
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Anonymous | 30-Mar-2010 7:39 pm
Mr Marshall talks about opportunities to get involved in international work. To do that you need an international presence. Unless CC, A&O, DLA and all the other internationals have got it completely and utterly wrong.
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