Dubai partner Edmund Boyo and London partner Adrian Cartwright have stepped forward to challenge Clifford Chance’s (CC) incumbent senior partner Jeroen Ouwehand, three years into his four-year term.
Structured finance specialist Boyo is well-regarded for his successful role as managing partner of the firm’s Dubai office. A CC lifer, he trained in the London office and spent 16 years in Frankfurt before relocating to Dubai in 2017.
The second contender, Cartwright, heads the European equity capital markets group. He started his career at Linklaters, spending nine years between London and New York, before joining CC in 2002.
Prior to Amsterdam-based Ouwehand’s election in 2018, when he beat five partners to succeed Malcolm Sweeting, all previous CC senior partners had been based in the City. Since beginning his term in January 2019, Ouwehand has been credited for leading the firm’s ESG and sustainability push: establishing an ESG taskforce in 2020 and heading the firm’s responsible business board. During his term, the firm has also launched a global Code of Conduct which encompasses ESG expectations for partners.
Speaking to Legal Business earlier this year Ouwehand said: ‘To anyone who says we’re becoming too political or that this is “woke”, which sometimes I hear, I can say it’s what clients need and expect so it’s also good for the bottom line and, at the end of the day, will be beneficial to our business.’
The first round of voting is expected to take place in the coming weeks with the successful candidate due to begin their four-year term in January 2023. Though one certainty, with an absence of any women vying for the role, is that CC will not be following Magic Circle competitor Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in appointing its first female senior partner anytime soon.
