Gregory Jordan, the global managing partner at Reed Smith and a leading force behind the law firm’s expansion to 25 worldwide offices and achieving a target of more than $1 billion annual revenue, is leaving to become General Counsel at the PNC Financial Services Group.
Jordan will also be executive vice president and the head of regulatory and government affairs at PNC. He will also oversee the PNC Foundation and corporate ethics. He will be reporting directly to William Demchak, the CEO of PNC.
Jordan is stepping into the position previously held by Robert Hoyt, who is leaving PNC to join Barclays PLC as group general counsel.
At Reed Smith, Jordan has been succeeded by Alexander “Sandy” Thomas, the global chair of Reed Smith’s litigation department based in Washington, DC. Thomas is now Reed Smith’s new global managing partner and in charge of overseeing all 1800 attorneys of the firm.
Talking about Thomas, Jordan said, “He’s been in my sights for quite a few years … you want to leave when the firm is strong and on the rise. We are unquestionably that and we have that person [to lead it] in Sandy.”
Thomas came into Reed Smith in 1999 following the firm’s merger with his law firm Hazel & Thomas. Prior to working at his law firm, Thomas worked at the US Department of Justice, and as a special assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Thomas does not have any immediate plan to relocate from northern Virginia to Pittsburgh, but he would be attending frequently.
Reed Smith was founded in Pittsburgh in 1877 and is the second largest law firm in the city. Last year, Reed Smith was ranked by the American Lawyer as the 19th largest US law firm in terms of annual gross revenue.