Mayer Brown drafts Dickinson onto board

Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw has appointed corporate partner Peter Dickinson to its London management board in the run-up to the retirement of senior partner Stuart James.
Dickinson is a key corporate player at the firm and a close ally of London senior partner designate and corporate head Paul Maher. Dickinson has already started participating in the board's meetings, which are currently taking place at least once a week to deal with the mountain of issues generated by Rowe & Maw's merger with Mayer Brown & Platt on 1 February this year.
The board is made up of James, Maher and practice group heads Sean Connolly, David Allen, Jeremy Clay and Ian Coles.
As part of the combination process, the board was entitled to co-opt an additional member without having to go to a full partnership vote and used this to bring in Dickinson. James will cease to be part of the board when he retires next year to take up a consultancy role at the firm.
The addition of Dickinson reflects the political strength of the London corporate team.
Dickinson said: "In terms of turnover and fee-earner numbers, corporate is the largest practice, so it was felt appropriate that we should have more representation on the board."
The board's role includes identifying practice areas that need to be strengthened and looking at team hires to bulk up certain areas.
Dickinson said: "In essence, one of the key areas is identifying and reconfirming the strategy that we, as a practice in London, will take forward. Each department has its own strategy, but that has to be consistent with the board strategy." The board also deals with issues such as salaries and the firm's London premises.
Dickinson said that the appointment does not mark him out for corporate head when Maher becomes senior partner. "Even as senior partner, my expectation is that Paul will want to continue running corporate with myself and other members of the strategy group," he said.