Gregory M. Shumaker becomes eighth Managing Partner of Jones Day
Stephen J. Brogan, Jones Day's Managing Partner since 2002, today announced that, effective January 1, 2023, Gregory M. Shumaker will become Jones Day's next Managing Partner, only the eighth Managing Partner in the Firm's 130-year history.
Jones Day is a global legal institution with more than 2,400 lawyers in 40 offices around the world. It is a single integrated global partnership with a unique governance system that, among other features, provides that its Managing Partner is selected by the predecessor, who is in the best position to both see the current opportunities for the Firm and identify the person best able to capitalize on those opportunities. In addition to Mr. Brogan, previous Jones Day Managing Partners were Frank Ginn (1913–1937, who pioneered the Managing Partner concept 20 years after the Firm's founding), Tom Jones (1938–1947), Jack Reavis (1948–1974), Allen Holmes (1975–1983), Dick Pogue (1984–1992), and Pat McCartan (1992–2002).
Mr. Shumaker graduated from Brown University and the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he was Notes Editor of the Law Review. He has spent his entire career with the Firm in its Washington Office. Mr. Shumaker became a Jones Day partner in 1997 and has served in many leadership capacities in the Firm since that time, including Partner-in-Charge of the Washington Office, Firmwide Hiring Partner, and, since 2015, the leader of the Firm's Global Disputes Practice, which consists of more than 200 lawyers around the world who handle international arbitrations, investigations, and cross-border disputes in tribunals outside the United States. In his 35 years with Jones Day, he has been involved in a number of high-profile litigation matters, including the Detroit bankruptcy litigation, the largest municipal bankruptcy in history.
"Greg Shumaker is a talented lawyer and a proven leader," said Mr. Brogan. "He is a Jones Day lifer, beginning with his summer clerkship in 1986, and he loves the Firm. He has the ability, dedication, and instincts necessary to enable the Firm to continue its incredible success, accepting both the opportunities and responsibilities that face the Firm and the legal profession in the future.
"Greg is a natural born leader who has a disarming charm while at the same time possessing an iron will to protect our clients and the Firm. He will be a wonderful steward and take great care of our institution and the more than 20,000 people whose lives depend upon its good fortune. Jones Day is blessed to have him assume the role of its eighth Managing Partner.
"I helped recruit Greg to the Firm in 1986. I could see then that he had special gifts as well as the high character that someday might permit him to lead our Firm. That day is here."
"Steve Brogan has been one of the most consequential Jones Day partners in its long history," said Mr. Shumaker. "I have admired his incredible and magnetic leadership skills since he interviewed me in law school more than 35 years ago. Throughout a near half-century of service to the Firm, he has been the person most responsible for transforming Jones Day from a high-quality national law firm with a Midwestern base into a uniquely integrated global law partnership, in which attorneys throughout all offices work collaboratively to provide the highest level of client service."
Under Mr. Brogan's leadership, Jones Day has added more than 600 lawyers and 18 offices, expanded its presence in Australia, entered Latin America, and returned to the Middle East. At the same time, the Firm continued to strengthen the quality of its legal services, becoming a mainstay in the BTI Consulting Client Service A-Team report that measures client service, and securing the #1 spot in that survey each of the past six years.
Mr. Brogan also greatly expanded Jones Day's pro bono commitments. He was the driving force behind the Firm's efforts to represent the interests of asylum-seekers at the southern border of the United States. Since 2014, Jones Day has operated facilities that act as remote trial sites along the southern border and now has a fully operational office in Laredo, Texas, staffed on a rotating basis by lawyers and professional staff from across the Firm. In addition, Jones Day has assisted asylum-seekers in refugee camps in Lesvos, Greece. To date, more than 1,000 lawyers from virtually every office in the Firm have participated in this work, providing legal assistance to more than 15,000 individuals.
"Steve likes to say that 'people don't change great institutions, great institutions change people,'" Mr. Shumaker noted. "That is certainly true as a general matter, but there is no doubt that, over the last 20 years as Jones Day's Managing Partner, Steve Brogan has transformed the scope of the Firm's services while establishing values and operating principles that make this such a unique and successful institution. It is a tremendous honor and responsibility to carry on his legacy, continuing the Firm's contribution to the profession and to the advancement of the rule of law around the world."
