For almost twenty years, management at Lowenstein Sandler has been a two-for-one deal. Since 2008, Gary Wingens has served as each chairman and managing accomplice — a uncommon stretch of twin energy in Biglaw.
That modifications immediately.
The agency has elected Jonathan Wishnia as its first new managing accomplice in 18 years, whereas Wingens stays chairman. It’s a major structural shift for a agency that has grown dramatically below a unified management mannequin, almost tripling income throughout Wingens’s tenure and reshaping its observe round sector-focused development.
This isn’t a agency in misery. It’s a agency planning forward. As Wingens put it in an interview with the American Lawyer, “We’re in a occupation that’s altering quicker than it ever has earlier than. The modifications are dramatic, the winners and losers are fairly dramatic.” The choice grew out of a strategic planning course of, with management concluding that splitting the roles would “present extra bandwidth for management and administration of the agency.”
By splitting the roles, Lowenstein joins the various Am Regulation companies that separate technique from day-to-day administration. Wingens will flip outward — specializing in shoppers, long-term imaginative and prescient, and institutional data — whereas Wishnia takes over operations and builds out a brand new administration committee to unfold management accountability. As Wishnia famous in regards to the transition, “The aim of the administration committee is to create management bandwidth.”
Succession planning can also be clearly a part of the equation. After 18 years within the twin position, Wingens acknowledged the timing was deliberate:
“I’ve been on this twin position for 18 years, and whereas I’m not slowing down anytime quickly, it makes quite a lot of sense to ensure we’ve acquired folks in administration who’re well-versed in different operations of the agency,” Wingens mentioned. “We’re transitioning my data base and my institutional reminiscence to different folks at a time the place we are able to do it at our personal tempo with out exterior stress and without having to hurry something.”
If something, the agency’s management restructuring reads much less like course correction and extra like future-proofing — notably in a market more and more formed by AI funding and consolidation pressures. As Wingens framed the broader guess:
“I do know loads of shrinking companies and rising companies, and it’s extra enjoyable to be the rising agency than the shrinking agency.”
After almost 20 years of 1 individual working each the boardroom and the engine room, Lowenstein is choosing extra palms on the helm — not as a result of it has to, however as a result of it desires to remain forward.
Congratulations to each Jonathan Wishnia and Gary Wingens on their new roles at Lowenstein Sandler!
Lowenstein Sandler Elects First New Managing Partner in 18 Years [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Regulation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be at liberty to email her with any suggestions, questions, feedback, or critiques. You may comply with her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or join together with her on LinkedIn.
