Ex-Links chief Angel to be charged with integrating an emerging global legal giant, as Georgina Stanley reports

More than three years since he looked to have retired from the law, former Linklaters managing partner Tony Angel has proved he is still more than able to grab the headlines. As arguably the most celebrated law firm leader of the last 15 years, Angel had certainly not been forgotten in the legal industry – with his reshaping of Linklaters still casting a long shadow over the profession. Yet the news last week that DLA Piper is to bring Angel back into a full-time executive role in the law represented something new and sent a jolt through the market.

Assuming, as seems a safe bet, that DLA's partners approve the hire, Angel, who retired from Linklaters at the end of April 2008 and has had a range of non-legal roles since, is expected to join DLA later this month as co-chair of the firm globally and senior partner of the international limited liability partnership (LLP), which houses all of the firm's business outside the US.

The move makes Angel one of a highly select band of law firm leaders to have been externally appointed to run another law firm – and the only such transfer to yet occur at anything like this level.

The fact that Angel's title bridges both partnerships is a crucial distinction from that of his UK-based senior partner predecessor, Janet Legrand, whose mandate was limited to the international LLP. Marking the first time that the firm has appointed a non-US co-chair to work alongside Frank Burch in Baltimore, the move gives an indication of how seriously DLA Piper is taking what will form one of the central planks of Angel's brief: uniting its US and international businesses, including joining up the practices globally and integrating finances.

DLA's US and international partnerships have operated as two fairly distinct businesses under a Swiss verein umbrella since the 2005 merger between DLA and US duo Piper Rudnick and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich.

In the wake of the tie-up there was talk of integrating the two profit centres, but such aspirations were later discarded and the general consensus is that the two sides have, to a considerable extent, existed more like a joint venture under the same brand than as a fully-fledged merger.

However, all of this looks set to change with Angel's appointment and moves – already underway – to shift the international business to an all-equity partnership, a model already used in the US.

Given Angel's history at Linklaters, integration is a challenge he looks well-qualified to address, having overseen significant – and not entirely bloodless – expansion across Europe in his decade-long run as managing partner at the City giant. This initially took the form of a five-firm alliance Linklaters & Alliance in 1998, developing through mergers with three of those firms: Germany's Oppenhoff & Raedler, Sweden's Lagerloef & Leman and Belgium's De Bandt van Hecke Lagae & Loesch between 2001 and 2002.

Angel was particularly respected for helping to improve the proportion of cross-border work handled by Linklaters and for bringing new rigour and sophistication to the firm's client relationship programme and performance management. Though Linklaters suffered a difficult period between 2002 and 2004 as it struggled to manage its string of Europe mergers amid a slowdown in commercial activity, the firm was financially successful over the length of Angel's leadership, with revenues hitting £1.29bn and profits per equity partner reaching £1.4m during the 2007-08 financial year.

DLA insiders concede that increased discipline will be welcome given the sheer scale of the firm and the plain reality that its global empire has been rapidly constructed from a string of international mergers and lateral hires.

The other key element of Angel's hire will be to support a sustained push upmarket. Though DLA intends to stay focused on providing a broad service offering rather than trying to copy the transactional focus of the magic circle, its ambition still remains to become a uniquely positioned global adviser to many of the world's largest companies.

As such, the firm will be hoping Angel's appointment will help support some well-targeted lateral hires and a determined effort to improve its practice in the key global finance centres of London, New York and Hong Kong. Improving its City practice, which, in contrast to its New York arm, has been felt to be treading water for some time, will be a key aim.

As Jomati founder Tony Williams, himself a former managing partner of Clifford Chance who went on to run the Andersen Legal network, comments: "He's got a superb reputation for what he did at Linklaters and this will be a very hands-on role which sends a very powerful message for DLA. I'm quite excited by it. I'm a great believer that firms can make a lot more progress in a flat market than in a growth market, and this is a good message."

No-one is expecting Angel to play a supporting role, with the former Linklaters head being positioned as a core member of what will be a four-strong leadership team alongside Burch and joint chief executive Lee Miller in the US and managing partner and joint chief executive Nigel Knowles.

There will be particular interest in how Angel and Knowles work together. The two have enjoyed a warm relationship for years, though it appears that Angel's recruitment is part of a drive to widen the firm's non-US leadership team away from its reliance on the high-profile Knowles – who had headed the legacy UK business since 1996. With Knowles expected to stand for – and win – another three-year run when his current term ends next month, a strong working relationship between the two will be crucial to the success of his appointment.

As one former Linklaters partner comments: "I'd see [Angel] as more of a managing partner than a senior partner, which one usually equates to a plc chairman. Tony is, in my view, likely to be a much more effective chief executive than chairman."

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Career timeline

1984 Makes partner at Linklaters after qualifying at the firm in 1978
1994 Appointed head of Linklaters' tax practice
1998 Appointed as managing partner – reappointed in 2003. Replaced by Simon Davies in January 2008
April 2008 Bows out after 30-year career at Linklaters
June 2008 Takes up new role as executive managing director and head of credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's Europe, Middle East and Africa arm
August 2010 Appointed chief executive of Vantage Diagnostics
March 2011 Joins SJ Berwin as non-executive director
November 2011 Set to join DLA Piper as global co-chair and international senior partner