The Fifty Most Influential Lawyers, last published in 2023, features senior partners at the UK’s elite Magic Circle firms, heads of London offices at leading institutions and lawyers at the helm of the top practices in the City and other European hubs.

To be considered for the list, lawyers have to be working in private practice in Europe, although the majority of entrants are based in London, reflecting its importance as a legal centre where the biggest teams are headquartered.

We will unveil the full list on 30 June, but here are three of the lawyers making their list debut this year.

Jannan Crozier

Global M&A chair
Baker McKenzie

A Baker McKenzie lifer who joined the London office straight from the University of Manchester in 2003, Jannan Crozier was promoted to partner in 2015 and became the firm’s first female global head of M&A in 2021.

She fell in love with cross-border M&A after spending time on secondment to both Moscow and Sydney as an associate. She now leads a 1,300 lawyer team that has closed more than $600bn in M&A deals over the past five years. Half of those deals were complex carve‑out transactions across multiple jurisdictions.

Crozier is passionate about fostering a growth mindset and building out the firm’s largest practice area, overseeing more than 25 partner hires since mid-2023. Despite a global drop-off in M&A deal activity, she has overseen a 22% growth in the firm’s M&A revenue since assuming the role.

A standout deal was her work on Sika’s €5.3bn acquisition of the Master Builder Construction Chemicals Group from LoneStar in 2023. This saw her coordinate with six major regulators on competition remedies while simultaneously divesting part of the business to Cinven.

Her creative approach on that first-of-a-kind deal — which others had said could not be done — led to her winning work for Novonesis on its €1.5bn acquisition of DSM-Firmenich’s share of the Feed Enzyme Alliance; and for Emerson Electric on the sale of its majority stake in Climate Technologies to Blackstone, in a transaction valuing that business at $14bn.

Crozier wanted to be an astrophysicist but was advised to do law at A-level and shifted course. She grew up in Manchester with just her mother and sister, and set up a cleaning business to fund her way through university. “Doing deals is my passion,” she says.

Florian Harder

Munich managing partner
Morgan Lewis

Renowned German M&A lawyer Florian Harder was a partner with Linklaters in Munich for nearly 14 years before he led a 20-strong team to start the Munich office of Shearman & Sterling in 2021. When that firm announced its tie-up with London’s Allen & Overy in 2023, Harder once again led a market-defining team move, this time taking his entire practice to Morgan Lewis.

Two years on, having launched the firm’s Munich operation and bolstered its presence in Frankfurt, he has been appointed co-leader of Morgan Lewis’s global private equity practice and its global energy team.

Recognised as one of Germany’s leading corporate partners, Harder has spent his career working with German and European businesses on complex domestic and cross-border deals in the energy, life sciences and automotive industries.

His key clients include funds such as Igneo Infrastructure Partners and the European Diversified Infrastructure fund, plus metal producer KME Group. He recently advised the latter on its deal for the special products business of Cunova, in which KME held an indirect minority stake. That complex deal involved a de‑Spac transaction and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

A career highlight was advising Audi on the carve-out of Holoride and its subsequent financing and proposed sale of Ducati. This month, Harder was part of a cross-border team advising ANTA Sports Products on its purchase of German-based apparel maker Jack Wolfskin from Topgolf Callaway Brands for $290m.

Harder is an enthusiastic golfer who loves Italian red wine and British cars. He is also passionate about contemporary art, actively supporting the Pinakothek der Moderne art museum in Munich.

David Johnson

Managing partner elect
Slaughter and May

In February, Slaughter and May announced that corporate star David Johnson would be the firm’s next managing partner, stepping up in August. A lawyer who has worked with many of the firm’s most significant clients over more than three decades, Johnson was a trainee at Slaughter and May before joining the partnership in 2000.

As managing partner, he will be responsible for working with the firm’s senior partner on global strategy and with the chief operating officer to run the 116-partner business. 

Johnson will become a member of the firm’s partnership board and continue to maintain key client relationships.

Admitting that he had been considering retirement, he says: “This is a chance to do a very different job in a business I know and understand, with people I really like.”

Johnson has spent his career at the pinnacle of public and private M&A. He worked for Glaxo Wellcome on its £130bn merger with SmithKline Beecham to form GSK in 2000. He has worked on every major strategic transaction GSK has since undertaken, advising five chief executives.

Other career highlights include working for Carlton Communications on its £4.2bn merger with Granada to form ITV. He also helped Cineworld with its acquisition of Regal Entertainment, fundraising in response to the pandemic and then its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, the first of its kind by a UK-listed company.

Last year, Johnson advised long-term client BHP on its failed offer for Anglo American and did his first deal for National Express owner Mobico, selling its US school bus business.

A keen skier and off-road cyclist, Johnson wants to further the cause of the City in his new role. He runs the firm’s relationship with the Confederation of British Industry and is actively involved with advocacy group CityUK.

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