Mills & Reeve names Jeffries for top role as Ogilvy is ousted

`Mark Jeffries, who was previously the head of the corporate services group in Leeds and Birmingham, took over the position on Friday (1 June).`Jeffries, who was managing partner of the Norwich office between 1990 and 1996, told The Lawyer that becoming managing partner was a natural career progression.`Ogilvy did stand for office again but he was pipped by Jeffries who won the majority of the partners' votes.`Jeffries said he had ambitious plans for the firm which included developing all its offices.`"We plan to reach the £40m target by 2004," he said. "In London we will continue to develop the insurance practice, in Cambridge we will continue to concentrate on the high-tech and biotech sectors and in Norwich we have new offices to move into in 2003."`Mills & Reeve is currently sector-focused but Jeffries said he would change the emphasis of the firm's structure. Although he will maintain the cross-office groups, he will also strengthen the firm's regional identity.`The move coincides with the appointment of a partnership council which brings the firm into a more corporate style of management.`The eight partners elected to the panel are Jeffries, senior partner Jonathan Barclay and fellow partners Nick Fischl, David Brock, Raith Pickup, Graeme Menzies, Justin Ripman and Herbert Robinson.`Mills & Reeve's Cambridge office has also recruited a property partner from the London office of Coudert Brothers.`Christine de Ferrars Green, who joined on Friday (1 June), said Mills & Reeve had offered the same calibre of work as Coudert, despite being based outside London.`Mills & Reeve's property department specialises in construction, PFI, environment and planning.`It has a foothold in the public sector and has a number of clients in higher education, including Imperial College London and the London School of Economics.