Global law firm Goodwin announced today the election of the firm’s next Chairman, Managing Partner and Litigation Department Chair. Robert S. Insolia will serve as the Chairman, Mark T. Bettencourt will serve as the Managing Partner, and Joanne M. Gray will serve as the Chair of the Litigation Department. All three appointments will become effective at the beginning of Goodwin’s next fiscal year, on October 1, 2019.
Insolia will succeed David M. Hashmall and Gray will succeed Jeffrey A. Simes, whose terms in their current leadership roles expire at the end of this fiscal year. Bettencourt will succeed Insolia, who currently serves as the Managing Partner and whose term as the Managing Partner will also expire at the end of this fiscal year.
In his role as Chairman, Insolia will focus on overall firm strategy, market and client relations and external communications activities. As Managing Partner, Bettencourt will also focus on Goodwin’s strategy, in addition to overseeing day-to-day operations and managing the performance of the firm’s practices, including oversight of partner relations and performance. As Chair of the Litigation Department, Gray will oversee the direction and performance of the firm’s litigation practices.
“Rob, Mark and Joanne have all played a critical role in the development and the execution of our firmwide strategy to be a dominant player in select client industries – a strategy that, today, has uniquely positioned Goodwin as the firm at the intersection of capital and innovation, a firm unlike any other,” said Hashmall. “They have the vision, the passion, and the grit necessary to help our clients and our firm continue to achieve unprecedented success in today’s rapidly-changing, technology-driven economy. Goodwin’s future has never looked so bright.”
Insolia has been the firm’s Managing Partner since 2012. He joined the firm in 1997 as a founding partner of the New York office, which he chaired through 2004. He led the Business Law Department in New York through 2007. A widely-respected leader in the real estate capital markets sector, he previously co-chaired the firm’s market-leading Real Estate Private Investment Funds practice.
Bettencourt is a partner in the firm’s Technology and Life Sciences practices. Widely recognized in the legal industry for his corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and technology law experience and expertise, he concentrates in general corporate and securities law for both private and public companies in the software, Internet of Things, robotics, communications and information services industries. Bettencourt previously served five years as the Chair of the Business Law Department and on the firm’s Management Committee. He also served eight years on the firm’s Executive Committee.
Gray is currently the Chair of the Specialty Litigation practice, and the Products Litigation and Counseling practice, and she co-chairs the Food and Healthy Living practice. Her practice concentrates in the consumer and business-to-business products area, including FDA-regulated companies in the food and beverage, dietary supplement, life sciences and technology industries. She currently serves on the firm’s Executive Committee.
After stepping down from their current leadership roles, both Hashmall and Simes will return to full-time practice. In addition, Hashmall plans to continue to dedicate a significant amount of his time to the promotion of diversity and inclusion within the legal industry – an issue that has been a key pillar of his tenure as Chairman.
