Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati chairman Larry Sonsini is to lose his high profile role as a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) director just weeks after being offered the job as chairman.

Sonsini, along with the majority of the NYSE board of directors, is expected to be replaced with a smaller board that includes proposed candidates Madeleine Albright, the former White House Secretary of State, and Monsanto chief executive Robert Shapiro.