Head of restructuring, Ms Bairner, has been with the firm for 13 years and has built a practice spanning all aspects of finance and restructuring, with particular experience pioneering the delivery of complex transformation and regulatory change for her clients. She has led technology and innovation adoption for the finance & projects teams across the firm.

Head of commercial, Ms Francis, has been with the firm for 25 years, previously serving as chair of the Innovation and Change Board. As head of commercial, Ms Francis advises major retailers including Tesco and Heineken on their digital transformation strategies.

In their new roles, Ms Bairner and Ms Francis will each spend half of their time working closely with Hayley Harris, chief knowledge and AI adoption officer and Tracey McDermott, chief technology officer, to drive the firm’s strategy for client-facing legal service transformation.

They will build on the firm’s existing legal, technology, knowledge and data capabilities, bringing them together through an increasingly holistic, global approach to innovation, with Ms Bairner and Ms Francis setting the strategic direction, whilst Ms Harris and Ms McDermott continue to lead on its delivery.

This structure will ensure that innovation continues to feed directly into how the firm delivers its services and solutions and, ultimately, how it adds value for clients.

Ms Bairner and Ms Francis will continue to advise clients with the remaining 50 per cent of their time.

Managing partner, Richard Griffiths, said: “Creating the co-heads of innovation and transformation positions marks an important milestone in the advancement of our innovation strategy. The appointments we’ve made reflect our renewed focus on weaving innovation into the fibre of our service delivery, as Stacey and Clare will remain practising, client- facing partners.

“This dual role will give them greater visibility to spot emerging opportunities to challenge convention and innovate differently, all in service of enhancing the value of the advice we provide our clients.

“They will bridge the gap between legal technology’s transformative potential and the realities facing our clients, ensuring that innovation meaningfully improves our service delivery.”

Ms Bairner added: “We are committed to ensuring that innovation makes a positive difference for our clients. The opportunity is to move beyond access to technology and focus on where it can help our clients move faster, manage risk better and create better outcomes.

“We want to bring legal, sector and innovation expertise closer together so we can solve real client problems and scale what works. Clare and I are excited to take on the role and to work with clients and colleagues across the firm to make this happen.”

On her appointment, Ms Francis said: “At Pinsent Masons we’ve long held the philosophy that best-in-class innovation starts with the problem rather than the technology and succeeds only when solutions deliver real world success for the businesses we work with.”

“In this role, I’ll continue to embed that philosophy, emphasising that we have to be listening closely to our clients and building bold solutions. There is significant opportunity for us to lead the field in terms of what consistent digital delivery looks like and in demonstrating the value it generates in language that makes sense to businesses.”