Andrew Johnston aims to have global firm to double in size by 2030
Addleshaw Goddard has announced that Andrew Johnston has been elected managing partner in an uncontested election for a term of four years, with effect from 1 May 2024.
Johnston joined the UK-headquartered international firm in 2013, to lead its M&A practice in the Middle East. He has been a board member since 2014, and was appointed head of Middle East and Asia in 2019. Earlier in his career, he worked with Clifford Chance in London before being seconded to the Middle East.
Johnston will return to the UK to take up his new role. His appointment is the first time in the history of Addleshaw Goddard that a partner based outside of the UK has been elected managing partner.
Johston succeeds John Joyce who became managing partner in 2014, and was re-elected in 2017 and 2021. His decision to step down after a decade in office earlier this year brought forward by one year the process to find his successor.
“My ambition is for AG to double in size by 2030,” said Johnston. “I am looking forward to the firm capitalising on the strong platform created under John's leadership and using it as a springboard for greater success. We will continue to invest where clients need us the most and I will be giving as much focus as I can to ensuring that we flourish as a thriving global business, dominant across the UK, with greater influence in the City, and even more famous for high-quality imaginative, impactful advice that delivers real competitive advantage.”
Johnston has led AG's business in the Middle East to record financial performances, according to an announcement from the firm. The statement declares that it was the firm's fastest growing region in the financial year ending April 2023, delivering 43 percent income growth.
Earlier this year, the firm announced plans for a new office in Riyadh, AG’s fourth in the region, and that it is targeting revenue growth in the Middle East of 60 percent over the next five years.
As well as steering the firm through successful mergers in Scotland with HBJ in 2017 and Ireland's Eugene F Collins in 2022, Joyce has been the architect of the firm's growing international footprint over recent years, with four offices opening in Germany, and one in France and Luxembourg.
