The troops are getting restless. The first signs of this occurred as long as five years ago, when the towering figure of Bill Tudor John was ousted in Allen & Overy’s (A&O’s) first contested senior partner election. Lovells’ veteran senior partner, Andrew Walker, suffered a similar fate last year. This week, we report calls within Denton Wilde Sapte’s partnership that it would be healthy for chief executive Virginia Glastonbury to be challenged when she comes up for re-election in February. This is not necessarily because she has done a bad job, but because it might be time for the firm to choose a new type of leader.
It stands to reason that as partners come under more pressure to perform from management – and Dentons’ partners have had as tough a time as any – they in turn, as shareholders, have a periodic right to deliver their own verdict on their leaders. And to do that they need a choice.
