Taylor Wessing's new head on how he's aiming to keep the firm on its idiosyncratic but successful path

Adam Marks is easy to talk to. The conversation flows freely, covering topics ranging from football, skiing (he does plenty of it), career tracks, where to find the best sports massage to law firm strategy.

He is certainly self-assured enough to carry off the senior partner role at a major UK law firm, but carries the brief with understatement. Marks says that his qualification for the role is simple: he is a good communicator and likes to maintain good links with his fellow partners and clients.

Before Marks was appointed to the role on 1 November last year, replacing Martin Winter, he had a relatively low profile within the industry. Standing against Taylor Wessing head of private client, tax and incentives Mark Buzzoni, Marks was elected senior partner on a platform focused around improving communication.

His last management experience as head of the real estate practice saw him step down in 2007 as he feared he was losing touch with his clients. Despite this, Marks says he felt compelled to say yes when asked to stand for the management role last year. He says: "I got to the point where I felt I had things I could contribute as senior partner."

As for doubts, it is easy to imagine that a senior partner of Taylor Wessing could be wary of being overshadowed by the firm's well-connected and outgoing managing partner Tim Eyles but, if anything, Eyles' drive was part of the reason why Marks thought he should take the role.

"When you have a very dynamic managing partner, you need a strong chair who can act as checks and balances. The senior partner has a key role to play in making sure there is good communication between management and the rest of the partnership, and I felt I could help with that," he says.

And communication, he argues, is becoming more important for the firm as its recently updated international strategy puts a focus on expanding in emerging economies. Marks says: "We recognise we need to be international, but we never thought we needed to be global. Communication becomes especially important as the business is expanding."

The international dimension remains particularly interesting for Taylor Wessing. The firm is the product of the 2002 merger between Taylor Joynson Garrett and respected German mid-tier Wessing.

However, critics have at times griped at lack of integration between the German and UK practices, which maintain separate profits and partnerships. Today, Taylor Wessing is apparently content to operate as two locally-run practices rather than a strongly centralised European firm. (Post-merger aspirations for the firm to have full integration by 2007 proved wide of the mark.)

Instead, the firm has recently turned its attention to targeting Asia and the Middle East, in August last year securing an alliance with 50-lawyer Singapore practice RHT Law, adding to Asian branches in Shanghai and Beijing. The firm is currently looking at launching in Hong Kong and adding to its existing Middle East outpost in Dubai.

At home, Taylor Wessing has maintained a solid profile in the technology sector and has strong practices in corporate, litigation, property and intellectual property. And while the firm's UK practice has drifted down the revenue rankings since the credit boom – falling from 29th place in 2006 to a current position of 35th – its average profits per equity partner of £537,600 remain well positioned against peers.

Marks says that the firm will maintain its stance of eschewing the kind of short-term cuts seen at some peers during the downturn (the firm followed Norton Rose's example and introduced a range of cost-cutting measures in 2009, aimed at avoiding redundancies).

He says: "Markets change and when this happens we can support partners and help them adapt to changes. You can take the short-term view and ask them to leave, but this gives you a very unsettled partnership."

The firm's recently filed limited liability partnership accounts show a robust balance sheet, with a £20m bank loan taken out three years ago to back its office move now fully paid off.

If the firm has deliberately avoided some of the ruthless tactics seen by other City firms, it has shown an imaginative streak in recent years. Most notable has been the recent launch of New Street Solutions, the firm's low-cost document review arm which it intends to hive off. The business, which currently has 10 staff, is seen as a Legal Services Act-inspired bid to offer services to other law firms and cut costs for Taylor Wessing's own clients, with the firm set to retain a major stake.

"We have been very dynamic in our development over time," argues Marks.

Also touted is the launch of the firm's branch in Tech City, the start-up community in London's Old Street area. This will see the firm's lawyers offer legal advice on steep discounts to new businesses, which have the potential of becoming the next tech giants. While the move has raised some eyebrows, it does underline the firm's traditional strengths with high growth technology clients.

Returning to his underlying theme, Marks is currently in the process of interviewing all partners individually on how they feel the firm's supervisory body – the partnership council, which the senior partner chairs – handles its duties and feeds down information to the partners.

As Marks concludes: "The challenge is to recognise that you could always improve."

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Adam Marks – career timeline

• Studied at City of London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University).

• Trained as an articled clerk at Wilkinson Kimbers & Staddon, a predecessor firm to DLA Piper.

• As a two-year qualified solicitor, left Wilkinson Kimbers with the intention of working as a property developer part-time; however, Marks joined his father's firm as a property partner and ended up fully engaged in the law working six days a week. His father had launched MS Marks & Co in 1954, which later joined with Walsh Lawson, which itself went on to merge with Kingsley Napley.

• Left Walsh Lawson to join Taylor Joynson Garrett, predecessor to Taylor Wessing, in 1999, and was head of the real estate practice from 2004-2007.

• Became senior partner at Taylor Wessing 1 November 2011.

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Personal facts – the man behind the role

• Married with three children – two stepsons in their 20s (one of whom has turned property entrepreneur, the other studying sports science) and a 17-year-old daughter.

• An active Arsenal supporter, his favourite player of all time is Dennis Bergkamp.

• Charles Martin (pictured), senior partner of Macfarlanes, is Marks' ex-flatmate. The pair shared a flat as junior lawyers and remain friends.