Shakespeare strengthens senior management team

SHAKESPEARE Putsman has recruited another non-lawyer into a senior management role.

The Birmingham firm, which catapulted itself into the Legal 100 when it acquired Needham and James and Berrymans last year, has appointed former DHL executive Steve Taylor to the newly-created role of chief operating officer.

Mr Taylor was DHL’s vice president of human resources for Northern Europe with responsibility for 10,000 staff in nine countries. He has a background in general management with particular expertise in strategic change management.
 
His role at Shakespeare Putsman will be to provide strategic input and strengthen the firm’s operational capabilities and to help chief executive Paul Wilson to lead the anlraged firm.

Mr Taylor said: “Shakespeare Putsman is clearly an ambitious and growing business operating against a background of far reaching change. The economic crisis and the upcoming deregulation of the legal sector are causing professional services firms to reevaluate their whole approach to business. I am really looking forward to learning more about what drives professional services practitioners and to using my experience in industry to bring some fresh ideas to the firm.”
 
Shakespeare Putsman merged with Warwickshire firm Needham & James in July 2010 and Nottingham firm Berryman in November, creating one of the Midlands’ largest law firms, serving clients based across the Midlands and throughout the UK. With annual revenues of  around  £30m it employs 450 people across the region.