Editors' Blog

Maher Brown must wait...for now

Posted 3/10/2006 by legalweekblogs.com SU

Ever since go-getting corporate lawyer Paul Maher was persuaded by what was then plain old Rowe & Maw not to join Clifford Chance (CC), the firm’s fortunes have been inextricably linked to Maher's. In return for not joining the magic circle firm back in 1998, Maher was given free rein to stamp his vision on the mid-tier London firm. Fast-forward eight years and Rowe & Maw is part of an international firm that reckons it will break through the $1bn fee income barrier this year.

As for Maher, today Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw announced that he has been appointed as one of two co-chairs who will work alongside incoming chairman James Holzhauer. The trio – the third member of the triumvirate is Washington DC-based litigator Kenneth Geller – will form what the firm dubs an ‘office of the chairman’ when they take over from the current incumbent, Ty Fahner, on 1 June next year.

In the run-up to the decision there was some talk of a clash of egos as the firm’s policy and planning committee deliberated on the best way to replace Fahner, who is relinquishing his position on reaching the firm’s US retirement age of 64. The committee’s solution will smack of fudge to many – especially those based in the US, where governing by committee is hardly the norm. Still, at 47, Maher is easily the youngest of the three men and can comfort himself with the fact that he has been given what appears on paper to be an interesting brief – that of overseeing ‘global strategy’.

As for Fahner’s legacy, it is certainly true that he has overseen a major period of expansion at the firm, which includes the Rowe & Maw merger back in 2002, which was recently voted by UK partners as the most successful US merger so far (see story). However, with average profits per equity partner of $970,000 (£514,000) the firm is yet to break through the symbolic $1m PEP barrier - a feat that fellow Chicago firms Sidley Austin and McDermott Will & Emery have already achieved. And there is still plenty of work to do if the firm is to build a continental European practice to match its London office.

Meanwhile, at CC….

john.malpas@legalweek.com