21 March 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Herbert Smith has announced that Jason Fox will become the new head of its finance division from 1 April 2005.
This follows the decision by Clive Barnard, the current head of finance, to step down having led the division since 1994. Clive will return to full-time fee earning in the division’s general banking area.
Jason has been at Herbert Smith for 20 years, ten as a partner. Jason made his name initially in the PFI sector following a secondment in 1994-1995 to the Private Finance Panel. Since 2000 he has specialised in finance within the energy sector and has become one of the City’s leading lawyers in this growing sector. His practice is primarily bank-led: key clients include JP Morgan, RBS, Bank of Scotland and BNP Paribas. Since 2003, Jason has been on the firm’s Partnership Council.
Jason will split his time between fee earning and management. He will also lead the firm’s global finance practice, working closely with the finance teams in Herbert Smith’s Moscow, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo offices; and with alliance partners Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe.
The change of leadership in the finance division will coincide with the appointment of Herbert Smith’s new senior partner, David Gold, and new leaders in its other two divisions: corporate (Michael Walter) and litigation (Sonya Leydecker).
Jason Fox commented:
“Under Clive’s leadership we’ve made strong progress, including the significant growth of our bank client base and our successful integration of a raft of highly-rated lateral hires.
I’m under no illusions about the challenges we face, but I believe we now have the quality and commitment to build on our successes and achieve our long-term objective of becoming a top-five finance practice.”
