Alvarez & Marsal poached FTI heads as firm seeks to challenge Big Four giants
Management consultancy firm Alvarez & Marsal has poached its second FTI name to join its recently launched reputation advisory practice as it seeks to challenge the Big Four.
The newest recruit, senior director Tom Hufton, joins managing director Rob Mindell to lead the practice, CityAM can reveal.
The firm’s new practice, launched at the start of the month, focuses on helping companies navigate restructuring, disputes, and crises in high-stakes mandates where litigation may already be ongoing.
Alvarez & Marsal’s London managing director and head of European practice, Tony Alvarez, told CityAM expanding the practice and team of advisors led by Mindell “is a strategic investment in A&M’s growth.”
“Whether working on a strategic turnaround or complex transactions, clear communication and transparency of information are critical to what we do,” Alvarez said.
Hufton worked at FTI for 15 years, leading restructuring communications, representing both corporates and lenders in the same sectors, and advising businesses, for example, on M&A, refinancings, and debt issuances.
Mindell, who joined at the start of May, left FTI after ten years, where he co-led the firm’s crisis and disputes practice and boasts a portfolio of litigation advisory expertise.
Hufton told CityAM that it is “an exciting time” to be joining, as “we are in an environment where clear and decisive communications can have a material impact on business outcomes,” and that the team will work to preserve economic value for investors, organisations, and the people within them.
Firm eyes ‘conflict-free’ competitive edge
Alvarez & Marsal, best known as a specialist in restructuring and operational crisis management for companies in the pits, is throwing its weight around in the already-dominated market, directly competing with the Big Four and specialist consultancy firms.
Both Deloitte and PwC, amongst their advisory arms, boast sizable ‘crisis and resilience’ practices, focusing heavily on managing reputational risk for companies and helping boards set up frameworks to avoid a crisis before it happens.
Recruitment specialist at McKellar Consulting, Craig McKellar, told CityAM that according to analysis the group conducted over the past year, shows “a trend” in Alvarez & Marsal hiring in the UK “, in volume from the Big Four across different service lines”.
“However, this new reputation service line launched with individuals from FTI instead makes sense given the Big Four don’t have as established litigation and comms specialists,” McKellar added.
Alvarez & Marsal’s new practice, which plans to help companies protect enterprise value from the outset of a client issue which may include restructuring, turnaround, M&A or litigation, is wedging itself between the Big Four and specialist consultancies.
The Big Four, however, often avoids litigation-heavy mandates, as the firms audit around 40 per cent of the market and, under strict regulation, cannot act on other matters for these businesses.
McKellar said companies such as Alvarez & Marsal are “an attractive place to move to because they don’t have an audit arm like the Big Four, meaning individuals can avoid independence conflicts”, which is what “matters most for rainmakers.”
Recruitment specialist and partner at Patrick Morgan, James Ransome, told CityAM that conflict constraints “can significantly limit the ability to act on mandates” at the Big Four and even at smaller firms, including FTI Consulting.
“Platforms like Alvarez & Marsal offer a cleaner slate, no audit conflicts, and often more flexibility in pursuing contentious or high-profile work. That’s a meaningful pull factor for senior operators who want to stay close to the most interesting situations,” Ransome said.
Ransome added that the firm’s hiring strategy of driving a new practice with fully formed teams of credible leaders already behind the wheel is “very deliberate” and shows they are “buying time.”
“In a talent-constrained niche like litigation PR, that can work, but only if those hires bring portable relationships,” he stated.
“Alvarez & Marsal’s move signals that the battleground for restructuring and disputes is broadening. It’s no longer just financial or legal, it’s increasingly reputational, and firms that can integrate all three will have a clever edge,” Ransome added.