Reed Smith global managing partner Sandy Thomas (pictured) has shaken up the firm's senior management team, his first major move since being re-appointed to the chief role last month.

Partners this month voted to approve Thomas' recommendations, which include changes to half of the positions in the top team.

New York office managing partner Edward Estrada will become the firm's global head of strategy on 1 August, replacing Michael Pollack, who has been on the senior management team for 14 years and is replacing Carl Krasik as chief legal officer.

Estrada, who has sat on the executive committee since 2010, and previously served as co-practice group leader of the firm's US commercial litigation practice.

Meanwhile, Casey Ryan, the Pittsburgh-based vice chair of the firm's litigation department, is to replace Colleen Davies as global head of legal personnel, effective 1 March 2015. Davies, who has been on the senior management team for eight years, helped the firm develop its industry group practice model.

Separately, firmwide litigation chair Jack Nelson will step down on 31 December to make way for San Francisco office managing partner and litigation department chair-elect Ray Cardozo. Following the change, Nelson will move into the role of vice chair of the litigation department.

Two London-based management team members will retain their roles: chair of the business and finance department David Boutcher, and Roger Parker, managing partner of the firm's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The firm's Pittsburgh-based chief operating officer Gary Sokulski will continue in the role he first took on in 2004, while executive committee secretary Carolyn Duronio was also re-appointed to her post.

The management changes follow the appointment of Thomas to the top position last month, after a contested election saw a challenge to his leadership from business and finance vice-chair John Martini.

Thomas, who starts his three year term on 1 August, had previously been backed as the successor to former global managing partner Gregory Jordan, after he departed Reed Smith to take up the post of general counsel at PNC bank last October, mid-way through his fifth term in the role.