Allen & Overy (A&O) has elected current global corporate co-head Dirk Meeus and London corporate head Richard Browne as global co-heads for the firm's corporate practice.

The appointments follow the recent election of current corporate co-head Andrew Ballheimer as A&O's global managing partner.

Ballheimer was co-head of London corporate alongside Meeus and his move to the top job at A&O triggered an early election for his replacement.

Both Browne (pictured) and Meeus stood unopposed. Browne's replacement as London corporate head is yet to be selected.

The pair will commence their four year term on 1 May and remain fee earning partners during this time.

Browne has been at A&O for 23 years and acted on a raft of major M&A transactions. He led the team advising retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone on its London Stock Exchange flotation in October 2015.

Speaking to Legal Week, Browne said he and Meeus were going to spend some time "listening" to their fellow corporate partners before setting out a refreshed strategy for the practice.

He added: "There are all sorts of areas where you can target growth. You can go after specific products or clients or geographies but you cannot do everything."

Browne added that there was not going to be a radical shift in direction from the one that was in place when Meeus and Ballheimer were at the helm. "I'm not the candidate of revolution," he said.

Ballheimer was elected as managing partner last month (25 February) beating competition from banking co-head Andrew Trahair, finance partner Michael Castle and corporate finance partner Simon Black to secure the post.

Ballheimer was among the favourites to land the managing partner role and had been linked with the elections since last June. He is a well-known and large personality within the partnership and many touted his role as global corporate co-head as a clear reason for him to take the top job.

His election followed that of current managing partner Dejonghe to the senior partner role at the firm earlier in March.

During Dejonghe's time as managing partner revenue rose from £1.09bn in 2008-09 to £1.23bn in 2014-15, with profit per equity partner climbing from £1m to £1.21m.