Pinsent Masons launches Spark Board to promote inclusive decision-making
Consisting of eight individuals, the team is tasked by the firm’s global Board with considering and presenting its views and solutions on a number of advisory projects.
Pinsent Masons has announced the launch of the Spark Board to bring a new perspective to strategic decision-making at the firm.
The Spark Board is tasked by Pinsent Masons’ global Board with considering and presenting its views and solutions on a number of advisory projects as directed by the firm’s Board. Further, the Spark Board will be tasked with selecting a number of ‘big picture thinking’ projects of its own choosing and making recommendations to the Board.
The aim of the Spark Board is to support an inclusive approach to strategic decision-making, ensuring the firm’s main Board benefits from perspectives from outside as well as within the partnership. The composition of the Spark Board will ensure that viewpoints from different generations, geographies and job roles are represented when the Board considers different propositions.
The Spark Board consists of eight individuals, all of whom are below the level of partner, legal director or director of business operations. The firm invited applications from across its global business for positions over the summer, receiving 130 applications from across its network of offices. A shortlist of candidates was selected for interview, and eight individuals have now been appointed for a two-year term.
They are:
- Alexandra Aikman, associate, Dubai
- David Bryden, solicitor, Edinburgh
- Julian Grant, associate, Melbourne
- Andrew Kane, SmartDelivery manager, Birmingham
- Sania Khan, responsible business executive, Leeds
- Valentine Morand, avocat à la cour, Paris
- Hinesh Shah, forensic accountant, London
- Philippa Ward, solicitor, London
Philippa Ward, a solicitor in Pinsent Masons’ London Corporate team who first raised the idea with the firm’s management, says, “The average age of the members of the firm’s two primary leadership committees, the Board and OpsCom, is 20-30 years older than the most common age group of the people in our firm. The Spark Board was born from a recognition that, whether you are a lawyer, a fee earner in another discipline or a specialist in an area of business operations, you can offer a different way of thinking and alternative expertise on the big issues. There is a recognition around our business that no single person or committee has the monopoly on good ideas, and that’s where the Spark Board has a role to play. We can better use, and benefit from, the diversity of all our people.”
Richard Foley, senior partner commented, “As we continue to transition our business we know our decision-making needs to be informed by the widest possible range of talents within our business. If we want our business to work better we have to be prepared to push a few boundaries and that includes around key decision making. I am really excited about the contribution the Spark Board will make to that and I’m looking forward to working with the team.”
