Eversheds Sutherland‘s longstanding chief executive Bryan Hughes is to depart the firm in October following a six month stint in project management for the firm.
Hughes (pictured), who steps down from the chief executive role at the end of April, will hand over to the firm’s current managing partner Lee Ranson. It is understood that he will then undertake a research project which will look at the firm’s consulting offering and Eversheds Sutherland’s strategy. A large part of the role will involve client work. Following this, When Hughes leaves the firm at the end of October, he is likely to take up a role outside the law.
Eversheds Sutherland’s consulting offering currently includes in-house legal advisory as well as regulatory compliance, technology and HR consulting. The firm’s contract lawyer service Eversheds Sutherland Agile and its business as usual outsourcing arm Eversheds Sutherland Integrate also fall under the consulting arm.
Hughes joined Eversheds in 1984 as a trainee, and specialised in commercial litigation before establishing an insurance practice which predominantly handled defendant personal injury work, a range of insurance related disputes and professional negligence and fraud claims.
Appointed managing partner of the firm’s Cardiff office in 2000, became managing partner in 2006 and was first appointed chief executive in 2009 to serve two four-year terms.
From the beginning of May, Eversheds Sutherland will be led by Ranson, alongside Sutherland’s managing partner Mark Wasserman on a six-person global executive team which is overseen by a global board of ten people with equal representation from each firm.
Earlier this month, Legal Business revealed that the firm had appointed corporate partner Keri Rees to head up the firm’s global company commercial practice group following Keith Froud’s appointment as managing partner.
Meanwhile, the current head of Eversheds UK private equity team, Richard Moulton, will take over as head of the firm’s corporate and M&A team. This position was also previously held by Froud.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
