Given the frequency with which law firms make both management changes and partner hires, there's a tendency for many to get lost in the crowd. But every so often something a little bit different happens. 

So it was when Slaughter and May last month made its first-ever lateral partner hire in its 125-year history and when DLA Piper pulled off the rare feat of hiring into a management position with the recruitment of former Linklaters managing partner Tony Angel in 2011.

Perhaps it was a desire to recreate the excitement around this hire that prompted DLA to invite editors to London's Landmark hotel to unveil details of Angel's successor – and indeed the rest of its global management team.

The problem from DLA's perspective is that confirmation of Angel's long-anticipated departure has deflected attention away from Nigel Knowles' future role as co-chair and Simon Levine's replacement of Knowles as co-chief executive. As the firm is keen to stress, with nearly a year still to go as co-chair, and closer to 15 months until his term as senior partner of non-US operations comes to an end, it is hard to judge fairly whether Angel has made a success of his role or not. 

That doesn't mean it isn't worth starting to have a look. 

When Angel was brought into DLA, his public brief was very clear: 1) to raise the market standing of the firm, boost profitability and improve its ability to make senior hires from decent firms; and 2) to help integrate a US and international business that arguably seemed linked by little more than name, with financial integration one potential outcome discussed by partners at the time. 

On the first point there has been some progress, with DLA bringing in several relatively high-profile laterals both in the UK and internationally. And, in keeping with the axeman tag he perhaps unfairly gained at his old firm, tough decisions following a review of the UK business show the firm is taking positive steps to move into more profitable work.

It is on the second point where progress is less clear. True, there are plans to coordinate practices on a global rather than regional basis and the partnership structure is now broadly aligned across both the international and US partnerships, but financial integration no longer seems to be on the agenda. Now, you could query how much this really matters but, irrespective of this, it seems fair to say the slow pace of change at DLA raises questions.

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