Reed Smith global managing partner Sandy Thomas has been reappointed to the role until 2021 after an uncontested election.

Thomas took over the role from Greg Jordan who stood down midway through a three-year term in October 2013.

He is the firm’s 11th eleventh managing partner in the firm’s 140-year history and has seen strong expansion since the beginning of his tenure.

The firm opened offices in Frankfurt in 2015 as well as ramping up operations in the firm’s Singapore office a year later. An office in Miami earlier this year rounded off the Reed Smith expansion in Thomas’s first spell in the job.

Reed Smith were, notably, one of the main beneficiaries of King & Wood Mallesons European downfall as the firm took more than 50 lawyers into its London, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris offices. Indeed, the firm’s London office won its first major refinancing work as a direct result of ex-KWM partner Delphine Currie in July.

Thomas said: “It is an honour and a privilege to serve as the firm’s global managing partner, and I appreciate the continued confidence of my partners. I am proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to further strategic growth focused on our five leading industry groups: financial industry, life sciences/healthcare, media and entertainment, energy and natural resources and shipping.”

The firm saw turnover decline for the second successive year in February falling 4 per cent from $1.23bn to $1.1bn. Profit per equity partner stayed largely static at $1.1bn but Thomas said the firm had outperformed expectations after a 5 per cent reduction in the headcount at the firm in 2016.

Thomas said: “Fewer lawyers is naturally going to have an effect on revenue. We’re trying to manage our headcount, which is a global endeavour. The market is characterised by relatively static demand and firms need to focus on this.”

The firm currently has more than 1,700 lawyers worldwide spread over 27 offices and was one of the first firms to pilot the Mansfield Rule requiring a minimum of 30 per cent of the leadership, equity partner promotions and lateral hires to be women and lawyers of colour.