Peter Martyr, CEO of global legal giant Norton Rose Fulbright, will start a new three-year term as firm leader on Jan. 1, 2018.
A firm spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that Norton Rose Fulbright s partnership tapped Martyr for a sixth term in June. By the end of his new term, Martyr will have led the firm for more than 18 years, having first taken the reins at what was then Norton Rose in 2002. It remains unclear whether Martyr was elected or reappointed to the firm s top leadership role.
This is an internal partnership issue and as such we will not comment on the specifics of the process, the firm said. We planned to announce the global chief executive and global chair simultaneously before their terms officially start on [Jan. 1, 2018]. We normally do this about a month before, and have done so in previous years.
Martryr was first elected CEO of Norton Rose in May 2002, shortly after the London-based firm s merger with German firm Gaedertz s Cologne office. In 2011, The American Lawyer profiled Martyr s role leading Norton Rose through a series of cross-border combinations, including Australia s Deacons, Canada s Ogilvy Renault, Macleod Dixon and Bull, Housser & Tupper and South Africa s Deneys Reitz.
Norton Rose Fulbright, formed in 2013 after the firm absorbed Houston-based Am Law 100 firm Fulbright & Jaworski, has continued to be acquisitive in recent years. Norton Rose Fulbright recently completed its combination with Chadbourne & Parke, a deal announced by both firms in February, and the former is moving toward a Dec. 1 date to finalize its proposed union with Henry Davis York, another leading Australian firm. (Several groups of lawyers from Chadbourne & Parke and Henry Davis York left both firms ahead of their combinations with Norton Rose Fulbright.)
Martyr works in tandem with Norton Rose Fulbright chairman Stephen Parish, who in May 2015 took up a three-year term for his role. It has not yet been confirmed whether Parish will continue in his post next year. Norton Rose Fulbright had $1.685 billion in global gross revenue in 2016, according to The American Lawyer s most recent Global 100 rankings.
In September, Norton Rose Fulbright announced plans to create 100 new jobs for its legal process hub in Newcastle, England, a year after launching a pilot scheme in the city. The 100 new jobs will be created over the next two-to-three years and build on a 28-strong team of lawyers and staffers currently based in Newcastle.