The firm-wide managing partner of Linklaters is moving to Lloyds Banking Group next January to a newly created in-house role in charge of staff, legal and strategy.

Davies, who has been with Linklaters for 25 years, will start next year as chief people, legal and strategy officer at Lloyds. He will be a member of group executive committee and report to chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.

Davies’ term as Linklaters managing parter was due to end on 30 December 2016. in a statement, Linklaters said its partnership poard will look to ensure an orderly transition and reach a decision on next steps before the end of this month.

In the year to 30 April, Linklaters recorded income of £1,266.7m, which it said represents an increase of 5% at constant currency compared to the previous year and of 1% when measured in sterling.

Davies said: ‘Over the past year we’ve seen strong demand across all our practice and sector groups but in particular we’ve benefited from improved volumes in M&A and continued growth in contentious and non-contentious regulatory work, dispute resolution and arbitration also being particularly active.

‘From a sector perspective we’ve seen strong activity in funds, healthcare, energy and real estate. We have seen encouraging growth in both developed and developing markets with Asia recording the fastest revenue growth.’

On his departure, he added: 'Linklaters is a fantastic firm that I will be leaving with real sadness, but as my second term as firmwide managing partner draws to a close, I feel the time is right for me to accept a new challenge and take on a senior executive leadership role with an outstanding business. The role involves leading in areas I have experience and expertise in - people, legal and strategy, but in a different industry, which is very exciting.’

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