The firm announced that effective 1 January 2017, Fred Nance would become Global Managing Partner of Squire Patton Boggs, U.S. LLP, managing 955 attorneys in 36 offices in 16 countries, including U.S., Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. This incorporates 688 lawyers in the US and the Dominican Republic. Nance has also been named to the firm’s six-member executive committee, where he will be the first African-American partner. Nance has had a storied career with Squires, negotiating a pact between the NFL and the city of Cleveland to return the Browns to the city; becoming a finalist for the position of NFL Commissioner in 2005; saving 1,000 and securing 600 more Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) jobs for the city, when the Pentagon said it could no longer afford them; and signing up a young high school basketball player, LeBron James, as a client in 2002.