Ashurst has confirmed the reappointment of managing partner Simon Bromwich for a second three-year term leading up to 2010.
In an internal announcement sent out this morning, the firm confirmed that its eight-member board had opted to re-elect Bromwich. As first reported on ww.thelawyer.com (6 September), the board had been informally canvassing the partnership over Bromwich’s reappointment.
Bromwich has held the role since January 2004, with his current term due to end in January 2007.
In a statement, senior partner Geoffrey Green, said: “He has done a first rate job and during his tenure the firm has gone from strength to strength. We are confident that further growth and success will follow.”
Bromwich said: “The firm is performing strongly and I look forward to being involved in the next period of Ashurst’s development.”
Bromwich, who has been a partner at Ashurst since 1999, replaced ousted former managing partner Justin Spendlove in 2004 following the collapse of the firm’s merger discussions with Fried Frank Harris & Shriver in 2003.
Ashurst has enjoyed a highly lucrative period under Bromwich’s leadership. An aggressive cost-cutting campaign and a series of partner sackings in 2005 have assisted the firm’s average profit per equity partner (PEP) to jump 34.5 per cent since the 2003-04 financial year.
This includes a 23.6 per cent increase in PEP to £701,000 and six per cent rise in turnover to £214m last financial year, as reported in The Lawyer UK 100 Annual Report 2006.
Under the firm’s management appointment process, the eight-member board, which includes Bromwich, Green, finance director Nigel Moorland and partners Edward Sparrow, Mark Vickers, Charlie Geffen, Daniele Raynaud and Logan Mair, directly appoints the managing partner, rather than through a partnership election.
Ashurst revamped its management structure late in 2003 reducing the size of its management board from 12 to eight, including the non-elected positions of managing partner and finance director.
