Jan Heuvels’ early departure as senior international partner at Ince & Co has left one of the biggest names in shipping law looking for fresh leadership and direction.
It is understood Heuvels’ four-year contract still had six months to run when he decided to stand down this week and continue as a partner at the firm.
He remains in charge of the drive to expand in the Far East from his base in Hong Kong, where he has been operating since last October.
No successor has been announced. Former Ince partner Peter Rogan has been appointed interim chairman and tasked with continuing Heuvels’ work and finding his successor.
The lack of an immediate replacement has led to the suggestion that Heuvels’ decision to step down may have been sudden rather than planned. In connection with the move, observers are pointing to a dip in earnings unveiled in July from £88.5m ($112m) in 2016/2017 to £83.4m in 2017/2018.
Heuvels said he decided to step down because he felt the time was right to hand over to someone new.
Heuvels has been a key figure in the attempt to modernise Ince’s business model to the level of some of its London competitors, and he had scored successes in turning the company round.
When he took over in 2015, some of the partners were regarded as far too comfortable at a firm that was known to give lifetime employment, so he began a shake-up.
A new remuneration system was introduced to incentivise the more ambitious partners, and there was a renewed focus on transactional work to counterbalance a business that he felt was far too heavily weighted towards old-fashioned shipping litigation.
Heuvels took personal charge of the next step in Ince’s modernisation: a move from dowdy offices near St Katharine Docks, on the banks of the River Thames, to a state-of-the-art premises at Aldgate Tower, closer to the City of London financial hub.
The move was intended to represent the new, modern Ince, but there were soon jibes from rivals that it might not be able to fill its new home after a spate of partner departures.
Although profitability began to improve under Heuvels’ tenure, the reforms were still clearly painful in June this year, when the firm was forced to announce 36 redundancies.
However, although the business model was being changed, in an overcrowded London shipping law scene the firm was continuously being linked to consolidation through possible mergers or strategic partnerships. Despite talks with many suitors, Heuvels was unable to find the right fit.
Now the focus will turn on who replaces him and what direction the new head will take.
Two senior figures at Ince who were close to Heuvels and his reforms are chairman Paul Herring and head of global shipping Faz Peermohamed.
Ince says it is hoping to make an internal appointment.
However, Herring no longer works out of the London headquarters, having moved to head the Piraeus office shortly after Heuvels went to Hong Kong.
Peermohamed is highly regarded at Ince, as shown when it immediately took him back after his short stint as chief executive of the Norwegian Hull Club did not work out.
Herring and Peermohamed know the firm inside out but are closely associated with the traditional shipping side of the business, whereas Ince is looking to expand in other areas. That could work against the pair in the search for a new leader.
