Manches returns to traditional law firm model as CEO prepares for exit
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Manches chief executive Judit Petho is to part company with the firm two years after she was appointed to boost its profitability.
Judit Petho
The firm said that Petho had refocused Manches on its core practices and the firm was now reverting to a traditional legal management structure with London managing partner Melvin Pedro and Thames Valley managing partner Richard Smith expanding their roles to implement the firm’s strategy.
Petho told The Lawyer in November last year that her mission was to put Manches back on the path to profitability after five consecutive years of falling revenues. Since 2008 turnover had fallen by 11 per cent from an all-time high of £34.4m to a five-year low of £30.6m at the 2010-11 year-end.
She said at the time: “Manches hasn’t lived up to its full potential for a long time. If you don’t have strong leadership and you don’t push people, you lose track of where you’re going” (28 November 2011).
Petho’s strategy was to encourage the firm’s partners to take responsibility for their practices and move away from a blame culture within the firm.
Greater responsibility was given to the firm’s administrative team and, following her departure, finance director Richard Naylor and HR director Marcia Mardner will expand their roles “ to include operational and other aspects of the day-to-day running of the business”, the firm said.
It is not known whether Petho has secured a new role within the profession.
In a statement Manches said: “After two years in the role of CEO, it’s been agreed that Judit’s input in refocusing Manches on its core client sectors and revamping the operational side of the business into a modern corporate structure is now substantially complete. She’ll continue to work with the managing partners and the board to advise on the smooth transition to our new structure over the summer.”
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Readers' comments (15)
Pedant | 5-Jul-2012 4:01 pm
I was always pethimistic about her appointment
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Anonymous | 5-Jul-2012 4:41 pm
it must be difficult for a chief executive to try and force a bunch of traditionalists to change, just look at all the comings and going at the bar. Who knows what obstacles Judit had to overcome? Anyone?
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Marshall Hall KC | 5-Jul-2012 5:58 pm
Her interview last year was pretty extraordinary - criticising your employers in public is never a good strategy to adopt...
Looks like someone's given her a bit of 'strong leadership'...!
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Insider | 5-Jul-2012 6:39 pm
Manches insiders are stating that this was a PUSH after the domineering management style failed to deliver.
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Too shy | 5-Jul-2012 6:41 pm
There has been a mass exodus of people leaving both pushed out or unhappy staff due to this so called strong leader. You either with her or against her...
Seems the partners have decided enough is enough
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Anonymous | 5-Jul-2012 6:51 pm
Isn't she Leo Dicaprio's wife in Inception?
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Hang on | 5-Jul-2012 11:44 pm
That turnover is pathetic. Why is this even news? Oh it must be because they are in London. A regional firm doing £30m might make it into the Buxton echo
Pathetic
Merge or die Manches
There are a host of firms in skipton that might like a London offering.
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Anonymous | 6-Jul-2012 0:13 am
The obstacles were limited and the partners just wanted sound leadership in line with their vision not her vision. Manches is a good firm with good people and cut their losses early in her appointment. Maybe the traditional tried and tested CEO was the way to go and life is a learning curve.
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Anonymous | 6-Jul-2012 4:44 am
Petho deserves great credit for turning the firm around, especially Manches Oxford office, which was in some difficulty prior to her appointment. Her two years with the firm have seen a remarkable improvement in esprit de corps as well as improved financial performance.
She had a difficult job which she did well, she dragged a family firm kicking and squealing into the twenty-first century and has encouraged the development of a partnership which is now young and which no longer beholden to a group of divas of a certain age.
Whilst Petho has refused to tolerate difficult or under-performing partners ( some of the "old guard" and unsuccessfull leteral hires have either been shown the door or gently encouraged to look elsewhere ), her focus on the hiring and the nurturing of young partners ( witness the successes of family partners such as Rebecca Cockcroft, James Stewart and Anna Worwood, private client partner Anna Burnside, litigation partner Margaret Tofalides and head of Employment Tom Walker) her willingness to topple "sacred cows" within the firm and her astute financial management has left Manches with a strong and enduring legacy - one which should guarantee its' future stability and profitability.
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Anonymous | 6-Jul-2012 10:12 am
I expect she grew tired of having to pop grapes down a certain person's cavernous gullet
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