Skadden Exec to Step Down; 1st Top Management Change Since 1994

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Skadden Exec to Step Down; 1st Top Management Change Since 1994

Posted May 16, 2008, 11:51 am CDT
By Martha Neil

Updated: After nearly 15 years at the helm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Robert Sheehan has announced that he plans to step down as executive partner of the merger and acquisitions goliath when he completes his term in April 2009.

He will be replaced by Eric Friedman, 43, a mergers and acquisitions partner in New York, Legal Week reports.

"It is not clear whether M&A specialist Sheehan will return to practice when he stands down.," the British legal publication says.

"Friedman was one of five partners considered for the position. He was proposed to Skadden's policy committee--the firm's principal management body--by a succession committee in a process that started at the beginning of this year," recounts the AmLaw Daily. "Friedman's appointment was unanimously approved by the policy committee and then rubber-stamped by the firm's partnership, although it was not put to a formal vote."

Friedman says he is “thrilled and humbled" to follow in the footsteps of Sheehan, "who has set an extremely high bar,” Legal Week reports. "I appreciate the confidence and support of my colleagues tremendously and look forward to working together to maintain and enhance Skadden’s global reputation and pre-eminence,” Friedman says.

Sheehan's planned passing of the baton to Friedman is the first time since he himself was appointed to the job in 1994 that there has been a change in Skadden's senior management, according to Legal Week. In addition to the executive partner, two other key men form the firm's leadership triumvirate: managing director Earl Yaffa and chairman Joe Flom.

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