Pinsent Curtis' London-based regional managing partner Grahme Brister has emerged as the frontrunner to become the firm's new national managing partner.
As Legal Week revealed last month (15 July), partners at the firm have voted to create a new management board, comprising a senior partner, a new position of national managing partner, a finance director and three non-executive partners. Partners will elect the new board in October.
Brister is a powerful figure at the firm and the driving force behind the growth of its London office from 16 partners in late 1996 to 27 partners today, with 98 lawyers in total.
Pinsents' other two regional managing partners – Malcolm Lloyd in Leeds and John Pratt in Birmingham – have ruled themselves out as candidates.
But sources say Birmingham-based head of litigation Carl Garvie is a potential challenger to Brister.
Brister joined Pinsents from Linklaters & Paines in late 1996, succeeding the then London managing partner Paul Downing, who left to join Price Waterhouse.
At the time, Brister was linked with the Linklaters managing partner role, but was said to have lost out to Terence Kyle.
After leaving Linklaters, Brister denied that he had wanted the managing partner position, but said he did want to develop his career with more of a management role, which was why he took the Pinsents job when approached by a headhunter.
Malcolm Lloyd was Pinsents' last national managing partner, but the job ceased to exist when he moved to concentrate on Leeds two and a half years ago. He said: "The new structure reflects what has happened in business."