As any managing partner will testify, there is nothing like a crisis to concentrate minds. And while it would be a gross exaggeration to characterise the state of affairs at Allen & Overy (A&O) as a full-blown crisis, there is no escaping the fact that the corporate-powered trio of Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Clifford Chance are pulling away from the rest of the pack.

As we revealed on legalweek.com on 29 September, A&O has been doing a little housekeeping in order to ensure that it is not distracted by a leadership election during what is a crucial period for the firm.

Managing partner David Morley's term has been extended by a year to coincide with the end of Guy Beringer's second term as senior partner in April 2008. This sensible measure not only smoothes the way for Morley to have a stab at securing the top job, but it will also foster in a period of stability, during which the firm must roll up its collective sleeves (see legalweek.com/editorsblog).

In the week that A&O ironed out a wrinkle in its governance, Hammonds has put the finishing touches to a more substantive shake-up. Indeed, last year's crisis handed managing partner Peter Crossley the nearest thing you can get to a blank piece of paper at a firm that traces its history back to 1887.

On Monday it announced the appointment of Bain & Co's former managing director for Europe, Crawford Gillies, as its first non-executive chairman. Gillies' role has been written into the partnership deed after partners voted in changes to the firm's governance over the summer. It is, in essence, to provide that independent oversight of management that was patently missing in the run-up to the revelation last year that partner drawings would have to be cut. He will chair both the partnership board and the remuneration committee in a role that the firm envisages will take about one a day a week of his time.

As an added benefit, as a director of the Department of Trade and Industry and a former chairman of the London branch of the Confederation of British Industry, his contacts book could push open a few doors for the firm.

Non-executive directors are often criticised for failing to get to grips with the companies they are charged with over-seeing. The same caveat must be applied to Hammonds' initiative. On the other hand, as a non-exec, Gillies is unlikely to prove as threatening to partners as a non-lawyer chief executive. Indeed, given the firm's recent experience, he is likely to be welcomed with open arms – which must be something of a first for a lifelong management consultant.