David Beveridge will take the reins March 1 as Shearman & Sterling's new senior partner, the 850-lawyer firm announced Thursday.

Beveridge's predecessor, Creighton Condon, will return to a full-time M&A practice, which recently included representing CVS Health Corp. on its $69 billion proposed mega-merger with Aetna Inc.

George Casey, Shearman & Sterling's global head of M&A, and Adam Hakki, its global head of litigation, have been named global co-managing partners, replacing Beveridge, who was the firm's sole global managing partner.

Casey and Hakki will advise Beveridge on key strategic issues, according to the firm.

“We have our team in place,” said Beveridge, a capital markets specialist based in New York who served for more than a decade in Shearman & Sterling's London office.

Beveridge, who was elected by the partnership to a six-year term, said he expects Shearman & Sterling to continue on its current trajectory after increasing revenues at a steady pace since 2014. The firm generated $912 million in revenues and posted $2.17 million in profits per partner in 2016. That represented an 18 percent jump in PPP over the prior year as the equity partnership shed 22 partners, a 14 percent drop. (The firm's 2017 results have not yet been reported.)

In 2018, Beveridge said he expects the firm to grow through lateral partner hiring, citing the Western and Southwestern United States as key hiring markets.

The American Lawyer recently reported that Shearman & Sterling has been in advanced talks to hire lawyers in both Houston and Austin.

Beveridge said the firm will continue to rely on an expanded nonequity partner tier to give it “flexibility,” as it has since 2016. “It's worked well,” he said of the changes to the partnership structure.

In the past two years, the firm has seen lawyers come and go but has kept its overall head count steady. “The total number of partners has stayed remarkably consistent,” Beveridge said.