Banking head takes over as Davies departs for Lloyds
Linklaters global banking head Gideon Moore defeated five other candidates to be appointed as the firm’s new managing partner in November, ending a four-month search.
Having been selected by Linklaters’ 13-strong partnership board as its next leader earlier in the month, the Magic Circle firm’s 450 partners gathered at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London to endorse his appointment on 17 November.
Moore, who had headed Linklaters’ banking group since 2011, has been handed a four-year term. He succeeds Simon Davies, who departs after eight years as managing partner to join Lloyds Banking Group, leaving one year earlier than the term handed to him.
Moore took the stage after former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague – who joined Linklaters in July to chair its new international advisory group – to deliver a ‘humble and optimistic’ address. Particularly well received was Moore’s decision not to unveil a 100-day plan, but instead spend time listening to the partnership.
‘It was a presidential opening and, not to belittle it, but he didn’t need to get granular,’ commented another observer.
But with US strategy and remuneration two cans kicked down the road by management at a time when Magic Circle rivals were building up mass in the States and altering locksteps to bring in talent, Moore is expected to create a taskforce to review remuneration.
His appointment is seen as a move away from the era of Davies and senior partner Robert Elliott, which was largely defined by the 2011/12 restructuring that partners felt was pushed through without proper consultation.
One influential partner observed: ‘People thought it was time for a change and Gideon wasn’t seen as one of Simon and Robert’s inner circle.’
Moore pipped dispute resolution head Michael Bennett and Asia managing partner Marc Harvey to the post after emerging as the strongest candidate on a three-man shortlist. Projects head Michael Kent was viewed as Moore’s biggest rival at the start of the race, but one ex-partner said Kent was viewed as a controversial choice ‘because he had been at the sharp end of some of the more aggressive management moves and is seen as a very hawkish member of Simon and Robert’s inner circle’.
Kent, alongside western Europe managing partner Pieter Riemer and co-head of operational intelligence Tom Shropshire, was eliminated from the race at the end of September.
The oldest and most experienced of the final candidates, 52-year-old Moore takes the top job at Linklaters three years older than Davies will be when he leaves.
One partner argued: ‘Gideon knows what it means to be a partner and is regarded as a practice builder, whereas Davies was the type who believed management was the driver of the firm.’
Ironically, Moore was the only partner on the final shortlist not to have been trained at Linklaters, having started his career as a barrister before stints at Clifford Chance and Dibb Lupton Alsop (now DLA Piper), yet the only partner viewed as being able to connect management and the partnership.
He is credited as the driving force behind the rise of Linklaters’ leveraged finance group, which he ran for ten years alongside partnership board member Nick Syson, to break the dominance of Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance in deal finance.
One influential Linklaters partner concluded: ‘I’ve always found him a straight shooter and he runs a good department. Those banking partners are all very close, they get on well and cover for each other, and they all think the world of him. That’s a strong tribute as he’s pretty tough on them. He came out of the hustings as the most strategic candidate and the person that the partnership would follow. He got stronger as the process went on.’
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk