Dentons appoints new managing director for the UK & Middle East region

Lisa Sewell

Ms Sewell has over 20 years’ experience in driving business performance and change in multinational organisations. She arrives following 10 years working with the Royal Bank of Scotland where she played a pivotal role in its turnaround, undertaking senior management roles as chief of staff of its Non-Core Division and COO of the Capital Resolution business responsible for the divestment of businesses no longer core to the strategic vision of the organisation.

More recently, she has established the bank’s simplification agenda as head of Bankwide Simplification, before moving into her most recent role as director of shared operations leading a global team of 7,500 across the UK, India and Poland.

She said:”The UK & Middle East region of Dentons has come a very long way in a short period of time – over the past three years we have opened new offices in Watford and Jeddah, launched our Warsaw shared services centre, merged with Maclay Murray and Spens and hired over 30 new partners into the business, all while playing a part in driving and integrating the huge global growth Dentons has experienced in the process of becoming the world’s largest law firm with over 9,000 lawyers in 70 countries.

“I am looking forward to bringing all of this together so that we can become more efficient and integrated as a business, and more responsive to clients’ demands for a different style of service that delivers, and is seen to deliver, value at all stages.”

UK & Middle East CEO Jeremy Cohen commented:”Lisa is a highly experienced and impressive executive with a strong history of managing and delivering change, and I am delighted to welcome her to the Firm. She brings to the table professional management skills, experience of simplifying businesses and making them more efficient – including digitisation and the smarter use of technology, a highly inclusive approach to building rapport with a diverse set of stakeholders, and a proven track record of developing and delivering on pragmatic and commercial strategies.

“I am looking forward to working closely with Lisa, as well as Madeleine Smallwood who has recently been appointed Chair of the UK & Middle East Board, as we develop our proposition of providing clients of the UK & Middle East business a combination of breadth of coverage, quality and smarter resourcing that few of our competitors can match.”