The Clifford Chance elections have produced an overtly London-centric line-up, while Lovells' shake-up sees the international offices represented throughout the management structure.
At Clifford Chance, half the global leaders were based overseas prior to the elections. Now only Jim Benedict, a former Rogers & Wells partner based in New York, hails from outside the UK.
The other former global heads included New York-based head of capital markets Bob King, Berlin's Wolfgang Usinger in charge of real estate, and Benedict, who will serve a second term in charge of worldwide litigation and dispute resolution.
Each of the new global leaders will automatically become part of Clifford Chance's management committee.
However, Mark Campbell, who has taken over as global leader in finance from Stuart Popham, who in turn is Clifford Chance's new senior partner, said: “We have strong representation from the regions in management from Germany, Continental Europe and the Americas.”
The elections of David Childs to global head of corporate, David Dunnigan to capital markets head and Benedict went uncontested.
However, in finance Campbell stood against Mark Stewart and Malcolm Sweeting, both highly-rated banking partners at the firm.
With Campbell's election there is now a gap left to head up finance in London, but whether Stewart and Sweeting will put themselves forward is not yet clear.
Also contested was head of real estate, after Cliff McAuley won out against Paris-based Ronald Austin. Douglas French in tax, pensions and employment was elected ahead of Frankfurt's Manfred Benkert.
Meanwhile, Lovells has completed a radical governance review, which will see the management function split into two and concentrate power in the hands of the international executive.
The review also creates a number of new management positions, with litigation partner Russell Sleigh stepping up to become London managing partner. Half the executive represent offices outside London.
In a bid to speed up the decision-making process, Lovells' 10-strong partnership council will no longer be required to ratify decisions made by the international executive. Instead, the newly elected body, chaired by senior partner Andrew Walker, will focus on constitutional and ethical issues.
