16 October 2004 LAWFUEL – Law, attorney, legal, law firm newsDLA has appointed Simmons & Simmons’ former Director of Finance, Paul Edwards, as Chief Financial Officer. Paul takes over from David Liddle, who has been DLA’s Director of Finance since 1990.
Paul Edwards spent seven years at Simmons & Simmons (having joined in 1996) and played a lead role in many strategic management issues, such as the firm’s move into CityPoint and the transition of its partner profit-share system to a modified lock-step with a merit based component. He played a pivotal role in the expansion and integration of the firm’s global network, particularly in Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands, and enhanced the overall standard of financial reporting across the firm, globally.
Between 1994 and 1996 Paul worked at Linklaters as the financial controller where he was responsible for managing a number of high-profile projects.
In the early part of his career Paul qualified as a chartered accountant at Arthur Andersen and later joined Lex Service Plc, which is now called RAC Plc, as the group finance executive.
As DLA’s Chief Financial Officer, Paul will play a huge role in enhancing the firm’s approach to finance and accounting across offices in mainland Europe and Asia. Paul, who officially starts on 1 November 2004, will be based in London.
David Liddle has been Director of Finance throughout DLA’s major growth phase since 1990, and will take on the role of Executive Director reporting to Nigel Knowles. In this new role he will project manage several areas of work associated with furthering the expansion and integration of the DLA Group.
Nigel Knowles, DLA Managing Partner, made this comment: “Firstly on behalf of the Board and the partnership I must thank David for the significant contribution that he has made to the development of the firm as Director of Finance during a period when DLA has made enormous progress. I know I can count on his continued commitment and support in his new role. I am also delighted to be able to welcome Paul to DLA. Paul is very experienced in the needs of law firms and is joining DLA as we embrace new international challenges.”
