(Reuters) - Law firms across the country, including Baker McKenzie, Dykema Gossett and Haynes and Boone, kicked off 2021 with announcements of new senior leaders at the helm, while others, like King & Spalding, are giving longtime chiefs another term.

The leaders step into their positions as the pandemic continues to reshape the legal industry.

Detroit-founded Dykema has a new chairman and chief executive officer in Leonard Wolfe, who previously served in other senior leadership positions at the firm. Wolfe started his three-year term on Jan. 1, succeeding former chair and CEO Peter Kellett, who served in the role since 2012. Dykema previously announced Wolfe's election in August.

Multinational firm Baker McKenzie tapped Kate Stonestreet as its new global chief operating officer. Stonestreet, who is based in London and will start in the role Feb. 1, has since 2017 been the firm's global director of operations with strategic oversight of its centers in Manila, Belfast, Buenos Aires and Tampa, Baker McKenzie said in announcing the appointment on Monday. She has been at the Chicago-based firm since 1995.

Atlanta-based King & Spalding has re-elected Robert Hays, Jr. as its chairman for another three-year term effective Jan 1., the firm said Monday. Hays became chairman in 2006 and under his leadership, King & Spalding has tripled in size and in profitability, the international firm said.

Taylor Wilson has jumped into his role as managing partner of Haynes and Boone, the fourth lawyer to have that position in the Dallas-based firm's history. Wilson was formerly partner and co-chair of the international corporate firm's investment management practice group, which he helped build. Effective Jan. 1, Wilson succeeded Tim Powers. The firm announced the transition in July.

Several other firms said late last year that 2021 would usher in new leadership. Norton Rose Fulbright, for example, named Houston employment practice leader Shauna Clark as its next U.S. and global chair, the first woman of color to serve in those roles at the international firm.

Among others, Matthew Feldman, a leader of Willkie Farr & Gallagher's business reorganization and restructuring practice, on Jan. 1 became the international firm's joint chairman alongside one of its current leaders, Thomas Cerabino. The New York firm's other chairman, Steven Gartner, retired at the end of 2020.