Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has finalised the changes to its leadership team, following up the appointment of its first CEO and senior partner with new leaders for its transactions and real estate teams, among others. 

Earlier this week the transatlantic firm said it had appointed Carol Osborne as global leader for its corporate and finance transactions practice, Nazir Dewji as global leader of its real estate team and Joel Lander as regional leader for corporate and finance transactions. 

Today the firm also said that it had appointed Alessandra Almeida Jones as global chief marketing officer, with responsibility for leading the firm’s business development, marketing and communications function. Almeida Jones, who is based in London, joined the firm in the role of global marketing and communications director from Baker McKenzie in January.

The appointments form part of a wider leadership shake-up at BCLP that will see the firm cease appointing firmwide co-chairs and move to a single leadership structure in 2024. 

In July, the firm announced that current co-chair Steve Baumer was set to become the firm’s first global CEO at the start of next year. St Louis, Missouri-based Baumer currently leads the firm alongside co-chair Lisa Mayhew, who is based in London and will step down having been one of only a few women in the legal industry to lead a major global law firm. 

As CEO Baumer will be supported by Segun Osuntokun, who will become the firm’s first global senior partner at the start of next year. He is currently the firm’s UK managing partner and also leads its Africa and civil fraud litigation practices. 

The raft of leadership changes is completed with Chris de Pury’s appointment as head of strategic growth. He was most recently global leader of BCLP’s real estate team, which BCLP said he had an “instrumental” role in building. 

BCLP said its new leadership team would be “instrumental in building on the firm’s recent momentum”, which includes the addition of a 15-person IP and corporate team from Dentons, the launch of a new office in Seattle, and the arrival of more than 25 lateral partners globally. 

“This group of leaders shares a common vision for the future of BCLP, and their practice experience will be a tremendous asset to our leadership team as we focus on the next stage of our growth as a firm,” Mayhew and Baumer said in a joint statement.