Latham & Watkins has opened the nomination process to elect the firm's next global chair and managing partner, following the surprise resignation of Bill Voge last month.

The process is expected to last several months, with multiple nominations to be whittled down to a small group that the firm will eventually vote on.

So far, market sources have put forward several contenders for the role, with co-chair Richard Trobman – who, alongside fellow co-chair Ora Fisher, has assumed Voge's leadership responsibilities in the interim period – considered a frontrunner.

Others tipped to throw their hats into the ring include Fisher, corporate partner Charles Ruck, who splits his time between New York and Orange County, Los Angeles managing partner Jeffrey Greenberg and Washington DC private equity partner Paul Sheridan.

When Voge was elected to replace the firm's long-serving former leader Dell in 2014, the leadership transition involved a months-long process. Some 38 candidates put themselves forward initially, and as that number was winnowed down, the three finalists – Voge, Sheridan and Greenberg – embarked on an intense tour of the firm's different offices.

Latham declined to comment on the nomination process.

Meanwhile, the US firm has also made a trio of lateral partner hires, including two in continental Europe from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Competition partners Jacques-Philippe Gunther and Adrien Giraud will join Latham's offices in Paris and Brussels.

Gunther is leaving Willkie Farr after more than a decade at the US firm, where he also headed up its European competition and antitrust practice. He was also co-chair of the firm's European committee. Giraud, meanwhile, has spent four years at Willkie Farr, having joined in 2014 and made partner the same year.

In New York, Latham has also hired Jones Day's global co-head of real estate Michael Haas. Haas officially joined Latham on Wednesday (18 April), and will serve as global co-chair of the firm's real estate practice.

During his decade at Jones Day, whose Cleveland headquarters he joined in 2008 after co-chairing the real estate practice at Ohio firm Roetzel & Andress, Haas has handled the property components of several large transactions.

Haas led Jones Day teams that advised DDR, a publicly-traded real estate investment trust, on its nearly $2bn purchase of 76 shopping centers from American Realty Capital Properties in 2014 and DDR's $1.46bn purchase a year earlier of 30 prime shopping centres from an existing joint venture with buyout giant The Blackstone Group.