US firm Arnold & Porter is reshuffling its leadership team, with the firm’s co-managing partners Ellen Kaye Fleishhacker and Michael Daneker being elected co-chairs.

The duo will succeed outgoing chairman Richard Alexander, who has held the role for nine years. The leadership change will come into effect from 1 January. At the same time, chief operating officer Sean Howell has been promoted to CEO, a newly created role.

Daneker has been with the firm since he was a summer associate back in 1991 and has served as co-managing partner since 2015, based out of Washington DC. His practice focuses on environmental law and toxic tort litigation.

He said: “It is a privilege to serve as co-chair of Arnold & Porter… I am proud of our firm’s strong core values, public service and unmatched collaborative and collegial culture.”

Fleishhacker has been with the firm since 2012 when Arnold & Porter acquired her previous firm Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin. She works in the firm’s corporate and finance practice group and co-leads its investment management practice. She became co-managing partner back in 2021.

She said: “I am honoured to serve as co-chair of Arnold & Porter and deeply appreciate Richard’s remarkable leadership and unwavering dedication to our firm. I look forward to building upon the firm’s successes, and remain committed to ensuring the firm continues to be well-positioned to address our clients’ ever-changing, complex challenges.”

Howell’s elevation to CEO caps a stellar career at Arnold & Porter that began back in 2009 when he joined as a financial analyst from WilmerHale. Since then he worked his way up across numerous analyst roles before becoming CFO in 2016 and then COO in 2019.

He said: “As the firm’s chief executive officer, I look forward to leveraging the firm’s talent and taking advantage of this enormous opportunity for growth and innovation. I look forward to working closely with Ellen and Michael to help build upon the firm’s dynamic integrated platform and support the development of the firm at all levels.”

Alexander, meantime, steps back from the chair role following a tenure that saw him lead the strategic combination with Kaye Scholer in 2017, as well as steering the firm through the Covid-19 pandemic and helping it punch through the $1bn revenue mark in 2021.

He said: “I have worked closely with Ellen, Michael and Sean and am confident that they will lead the firm with great distinction. They bring to their new leadership positions a sophisticated understanding of the important issues affecting all of our key stakeholders, including our valued clients and our talented professionals. They also are deeply committed to preserving and further investing in our core values.”