King & Wood Mallesons’ (KWM) European partnership chose two new leaders last month, electing corporate partners Tim Bednall and Michael Cziesla as managing and senior partner for the legacy SJ Berwin practice.
The elections were triggered by the early retirements of managing partner William Boss and senior partner Stephen Kon, who return to full-time fee-earning, and come amid a turbulent 18 months for the Global 100 firm. The new leaders take their posts after the firm has missed profit distributions, seen global revenues fall, made a cash call and has been forced to restructure the partnership, with 24 legacy SJ Berwin exits.
Australian M&A and securities partner Bednall won the managing partner race ahead of London head of tax Gareth Amdor. The former Mallesons chair was elected despite having only relocated to London from Sydney in 2015.
A former partner told Legal Business: ‘The election result is a further acknowledgment that [the European business] is a branch of the Australian and Chinese firm, and not what SJ Berwin used to be. Tim [Bednall] has only been here for less than two years and I don’t think he is really all that familiar with the market.’
‘Tim Bednall has only been here for less than two years and he is not all that familiar with the market.’
Another former partner said the election result will bring stability: ‘KWM is a very unhappy firm – there was a lot of infighting while they were trying to replace Boss – so maybe this will help it.’
Meanwhile, new senior partner Cziesla, who is based in Frankfurt, edged ahead of rival candidate, Dubai-based Tim Taylor QC. No London partner put their name forward for the post. One former partner described Cziesla as the ‘safe, steady option’, which makes KWM ‘clearly more European and Asian, differentiating itself more from SJ Berwin’.
Having been elected by KWM’s 140-strong EUME partnership, the two leaders took their posts immediately for three-year terms.
Kon commented: ‘Passing the senior partner baton for the first time to a non-London-based partner is further testament to our continental European and Middle East practice being at the core of so much of what we are about as a region.’
georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk