PwC Legal head Shirley Brookes is to stand down from her role, handing over the reins to partner Ed Stacey.

Brookes has been head of PwC’s legal services since 2013 and has been a partner at the accountancy firm since 1998.

She will hand over leadership of PwC Legal to the group’s head of employment Ed Stacey. Stacey joined PwC as a director in 2001 from the in-house department of the Royal Bank of Scotland. He worked at legacy Theodore Goddard and trained at CMS Cameron McKenna.

Brookes, who will remain a partner at PwC, has led the Big Four’s legal arm through several years of expansion. She appeared in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 in 2016.

Last year, PwC reported growth in UK revenue of 24 per cent from £48.5m to £59.9m. When it was granted an ABS licence in January 2014, turnover totalled £35.6m.

In 2016, PwC Legal was also fully integrated into PwC UK, transforming the accountancy firm into a multi-disciplinary practice.

The integration of its UK legal and accountancy entities completed in October last year following a two-year process.

It also obtained the approval from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to allow PwC to become the owner of PwC Legal.

Despite the growth, there have been signs that PwC’s substantial UK law firm auditing business may have been affected as a result of the firm’s souped-up focus on the UK legal services market.

A growing number of firms told The Lawyer they have either moved away from using the Big Four accountant as their auditor in favour of its competitors or are considering a rethink.

A very legal coup: the accountancy giants