Here are the five partners on the ballot to be the next managing partner of A&O Shearman
Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy (A&O) will host an election for the firm’s next senior partner and managing partner in February, for a new senior team to take over post-merger of A&O Shearman.
A&O’s interim managing partner is Khalid Garousha after being appointed in July, while its current senior partner is Wim Dejonghe, who has held the position since 2016. Both of their terms come to an end on 30 April 2024.
Last May Allen & Overy and US firm Shearman & Sterling announced plans to merge in a move that would create approximately $3.4bn (£2.7bn) in combined revenues. The partnerships of both firms voted in favour of the merger in October as more than 99 per cent of the votes cast at each firm voted in favour.
Today, the firm announced five partners that have been nominated for the election to be the next managing partner, those are:
Angela Clist
Angela Clist is the current head of advanced delivery – legal services, based between London and Belfast. She has been at A&O for over 27 years, having first joined in 1996 working in securitisation and structured finance and was appointed as a partner in 2000. She is also a co-global head of A&O’s bank sector group and she sits on a number of internal committees in the firm.
Hervé Ekué
Based in Paris, Hervé Ekué has been with the firm for over 23 years, having first joined in 2001, from Clifford Chance’s Paris office. He specialises in debt capital markets, derivatives and bank restructuring. Ekué currently serves as managing partner of the Magic Circle Paris office, having taken up the role in May 2018.
Vicki Liu
Currently, the co-head of the firm’s global banking practice and managing partner of its Hong Kong office, Vicki Liu is on the ballot to be the next firm leader. Liu first joined the first as an associate in 1994 and she became a partner in 2001. She has also been a member of the firm’s executive committee since its inception in 2017.
David Lucking
David Lucking specialises in derivatives and structured finance transactions and derivatives markets and is A&O’s head of the global international capital markets group. He is based in New York and joined the firm as a trainee in 2000 having been made a partner in 2011. He is also the co-founder of A&Out, the firm’s international LGBTQ+ affinity group
Dirk Meeus
Based in the firm’s Belgium office, Dirk Meeus is a corporate partner that specialises in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and private fundraising. Meeus is the co-head of the firm’s global corporate practice. Meeus joined the firm’s Brussels office in 2001
The firm has also named three partners that will be on the ballot to be the firm’s next senior partner. One of those is Garousha, the current interim managing partner and the others are London-based partners Philip Bowden and David Lee.
The firm said: “Shearman & Sterling partners will hold very significant leadership positions globally and regionally in the combined firm, including within the firm’s executive committee, board, practice group and regional leadership. These positions will be announced in due course.”
The results will be announced on 1 March 2024.