Clifford Chance global chief operating officer (COO) Amanda Burton is stepping down at the end of the year following a raft of leadership changes at the firm.
Burton was appointed global head of business services in 2006 and COO in 2010 and has said she is stepping down at the end of the year to focus on her non-executive board work (5 April 2006).
Burton was instrumental in streamlining business service efforts as well as championing its continuous improvement scheme focused on analysing and improving the firm’s legal processes (25 September 2013).
Her exit comes as the firm’s new management structure goes live (31 July 2014). The magic circle firm voted to overhaul its management structure in the middle of the year, scrapping elections and replacing its 16-strong committee with a 12-strong leadership group (24 July 2014).
Burton won an executive position on the new-look committee along with executive partner and general counsel Chris Perrin, global people head Laura King and chief financial officer Stephen Purse.
Her replacement has not yet been named but the firm is understood to be on the hunt to put someone in her place.
Burton first joined Clifford Chance in 2000 from Meyer International, where she was legal and corporate services director. Before that she was general counsel at Ratners Group. Her first role at the firm was as regional COO before being made director of global business services in 2006, a role she held for four years.
In 2012 she was one one of the managers who took home a chunk of a £19m payout to management committee members during the 2011/12 financial year (4 October 2012).
Burton said: “I’m a great one for re-inventing myself. I’ve been with Clifford Chance for 14 years, the last four as global COO and I’ve come to the conclusion it’s time to move on and build a board portfolio.
“I’ve never had a career plan in my life and that has stood me in good stead; when opportunities have come along I’ve not automatically gone ‘that doesn’t suit me’, I’ll always have a look at it.”
-THELAWYER
