After a test drive heading up Clifford Chance's (CC's) global corporate practice last year when previous postholder Matthew Layton was on sabbatical, partner Guy Norman found himself firmly in the cockpit last month.

One of the first decisions he was confronted with when assuming the role permanently on Layton's elevation to global managing partner was whether to shake up management of the City's corporate team following London head Simon Tinkler's decision to stand down and return to full-time fee-earning.

Given the expectation within the partnership that Layton will seek to trim the management structure during his tenure, there was some debate within the corporate team over whether Tinkler would be replaced.

Ideas discussed ranged from splitting duties such as HR and client development among partners to having Norman adopt London as part of his wider role.

While the eventual outcome is that CC will retain the dedicated London role, the debate underlines Norman's remit to simplify internal processes and minimise distraction from outward-facing work.  

As an example of how he wants to streamline processes both for clients and his own lawyers, Norman describes a two-year project with an unnamed US client where the firm has brought in its "lean matter management team" to improve "the efficiency of the transaction process". 

The new corporate chief has three priorities for the team, all of which featured in his manifesto when he ran for the job earlier this year in an election that, ultimately, had only one candidate.

One is to keep the practice's junior talent motivated and, in turn, tap into the lower end of the partnership ladder to obtain a broader – possibly more realistic – sense of how the group is faring. As part of this process he has appointed a junior partner and an associate onto the department's 'Vision 2020′ team, an eight-partner corporate strategy group that was set up 18 months ago by Layton.  

"I am particularly keen to get younger partners involved with strategic thinking and to play a larger role in developing client relationships," he says. "They have an up-to-date and valuable perspective to offer."

Another priority is to improve how CC's corporate lawyers target and develop long-term relationships with clients. "We need to have smaller groups of people working together, with clear and specific objectives in mind in relation to developing key client relationships, and total clarity around who is driving each particular initiative and with whom," he explains. 

"For example, if a sector team agrees to target four mining companies and banks, we need to ensure that two to three people are leading the charge on each company. We have been doing this for a while but I'd like to trim it back even further and ensure more precision around exactly what the expected outcomes are and work at the core of deals." 

The third priority is to ensure the practice improves its cross-selling and cross-practice collaboration, with Norman currently considering whether to increase the frequency of short-term secondments for associates between CC's network of offices.

Away from the points on his manifesto, one of the areas market watchers will be eyeing closely is the firm's once all-conquering private equity practice. The group has been rocked by three major departures since 2013, latterly that of Kem Ihenacho to Latham & Watkins in February. Norman sticks to the line that the team is as strong as ever, especially now Tinkler is returning to full-time fee earning. He does, however, concede that it would "ideally be bigger to enable us to take advantage of the opportunities out there". 

If all goes to plan, that enlarged team could be among the first to benefit from Norman's vision of a more efficient practice.