Dentons elects Kate Barton as new Global CEO

Dentons, the world’s largest global law firm, announced that its Global Board of Directors and Global Advisory Committee have elected Kate Barton as the Firm’s next Global CEO. Barton will join Dentons from EY, where she has had a highly distinguished 35-year career in a variety of executive leadership roles, most recently as Global Vice Chair. She will succeed Elliott Portnoy, the founding Global CEO, who has served since the Firm’s launch in 2013.

Barton led multiple business units at EY, a $50 billion organization operating in 150 countries around the world. In addition to serving as Global Vice Chair, she was CEO of Tax, Law, and People Advisory Services, which had a global workforce of 70,000 professionals and – under her leadership – generated revenues in excess of $11 billion. Among other achievements, she helped to transform EY’s global tax practice through strategic investments in people, technology, global shared service centers, world-class methods and processes, and M&A activity.

Barton will join Dentons in early September to begin a meaningful handover period with Portnoy, whose term ends on November 9, 2024. Barton will start her term as Global CEO on November 10, 2024.

“Kate has extensive experience in leading a complex and global professional service organization and has an outstanding skillset in managing people, processes and systems. Her successful client service experience, coupled with her thoughtful approach to integration, make her the ideal individual to lead our Firm,” said Elliott Portnoy, Global CEO. “She has my unqualified support, and I am confident she will lead Dentons from strength to even greater strength and success.”

Reflecting on her appointment, Kate said, “I have watched Dentons redefine the legal services landscape with its pioneering business strategy and client offerings. Under Elliott’s leadership, this Firm has differentiated itself with its polycentric approach and integrated cross-border and multidisciplinary client engagements, proving that uniting and operating as one firm is far more impactful. I am looking forward to working with Elliott on a transition and to collaborating with Dentons’ accomplished regional leadership to continue challenging industry norms and adapting to the ever changing world of technology and innovation faced by law firms and professional service firms around the world in order to deliver excellence for the benefit of our people and our clients.”

As founding Global CEO, Portnoy has overseen significant growth – Dentons serves clients in 167 locations in 82 countries – while advancing the Firm’s distinctive “uniquely global, deeply local” approach to professional services. Under his leadership, Dentons has become one of the best known and most favorably regarded law firms in surveys of the world’s most important purchasers of legal and business solutions services.