Eversheds Sutherland's chief executive Bryan Hughes is to leave the firm in October, following the end of his term as chief executive, which ends in May.

Hughes will hand over the chief executive role to the firm's managing partner Lee Ranson in May. Hughes will then spend some time looking at the firm's strategy post-merger and its consulting offering.

The consulting offering that Hughes will be working on includes the firm's contract lawyer service Eversheds Sutherland Agile and its outsourcing arm Eversheds Sutherland Ignite. It also includes its in-house legal advisory service as well as regulatory compliance, technology and HR consulting services.

Hughes joined Eversheds in 1984 as a trainee specialising in commercial litigation, before creating an insurance practice that focused on defendant personal injury work, a range of insurance-related disputes and professional negligence and fraud claims.

Hughes was appointed as chief executive in 2009 and served two four-year terms. Prior to this, he was managing partner of the firm's Cardiff office in 2000 and managing partner of the firm in 2006.

Eversheds Sutherland will be led by Ranson from May, alongside Sutherland's managing partner Mark Wasserman on a six-person global executive team. That board is overseen by a global board of 10 people, with equal representation from each firm.

Earlier this month, Eversheds Sutherland appointed new leadership for two of its practice groups, with corporate partner Keri Rees taking over as company commercial head from Keith Froud, who is set to become the firm's managing partner.