Macfarlanes Appoints New Managing Partner and First Ever COO

Macfarlanes has appointed a new managing partner to take over from incumbent Julian Howard once his term expires in 2022, alongside its appointment of its first ever chief operating officer.

The firm has selected its M&A co-head Luke Powell to pick up the role in May next year. Howard has been in the role since 2010, when he took over from Simon Martin.

Powell joined the firm in 2004 and became co-head of the firm’s M&A group in 2018. The firm said in a statement that Powell will remain a fee earner and will continue to lead client relationships following his appointment as managing partner.

In 2018, Macfarlanes extended Howard’s tenure for an additional two years past the end of his original term in 2020, following the confirmation that then-senior partner Charles Martin would step down in the same year to be replaced by private client partner Sebastian Prichard Jones.

At the time, Martin said that the decision was intended to stagger the appointments to avoid both new postholders beginning concurrent tenures.

Howard will retire as a partner but will remain with the firm as a consultant.

Meanwhile the firm has appointed its first chief operating officer, Katherine Milliken, who takes up the role from May 2022. Milliken joined the firm in 2013 having previously spent almost a decade at Inchcape plc, latterly as general counsel.

Earlier on Tuesday, the firm lost another senior M&A partner from its team, with Robert Ogilvy-Watson leaving the firm after less than two years.

Ogilvy-Watson joined the firm in early 2019 to bulk up the firm’s public M&A team following the early retirement of corporate heavyweight partner Graham Gibb.

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