Clifford Chance has elected Jeroen Ouwehand as its Senior Partner after two rounds of voting. A race that started with 5 candidates has ended with Amsterdam office managing partner Ouwehand winning in a face-off with Paris office managing partner Yves Wehrli.

History was made when all three London-based candidates pulled out of the race; global insurance head Katherine Coates and former capital markets head David Dunnigan doing so last week and former London managing partner David Bickerton withdrawing earlier this week. This ensured the election for the first time ever of a non-London based Senior Partner. As head of litigation for continental Europe, Ouwehand is also the first-ever Senior Partner that is not a banking lawyer.

Referred to throughout the campaign as the ‘Obama candidate’, Ouwehand will hope he can carry the momentum built by his historic win into his new senior management-level role.