Joint seniors at ATL step down

Chris Arnheim and Mark Lewis, joint senior partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers' associate law firm Arnheim Tite & Lewis, have stepped down, leaving the firm with no senior partner.

The move leaves managing partner Christopher Tite with sole responsibility for managing the firm, though Arnheim says all three have "senior ambassadorial roles" at ATL.

Tite says it was agreed last year when the two firms merged that they would step down at the end of June.

Arnheim is now based at London Bridge, where he is co-ordinating the firm's European legal services. Lewis heads PwC's global IT and telecoms.

ATL was created from the merger of Price Waterhouse's law firm Arnheim & Co and Tite & Lewis, the UK legal arm of Coopers & Lybrand, when the two accountancy firms merged last year.

It is said the founding partners have had an uneasy relationship since the merger and that this came to a head in May when six partners announced they were leaving to form KLegal, rival KPMG's UK legal arm (The Lawyer, 3 May).

But Tite says: "I have no doubt some people, possibly now outside the firm, would say that we don't get on, but that is absolute nonsense. Chris and I both sit on the global executive and we work together very well."



KLegal, the associate firm of KPMG, founded by six ATL partners, moves into its Ludgate Hill premises today (Monday).