According to Miller, a past CEO of Perks Integrated Business Services, the step made "perfect sense" in the current economic climate.

"We're playing to our strengths," said Miller. "Joe and his CDR team have earned a national reputation for the quality of their work and were regularly receiving more new-business requests than they were able to service.

"We'd obviously rather say 'yes' to those requests. So it made perfect sense for me to take on full responsibility for the firm's administration and free up Joe's time for clients."

DeRuvo, who will continue to have input into Fox Tucker's strategic direction, said he was excited by the opportunities presented.

"It's been a real privilege to lead this firm over the past few years," he said.

"But we're in capable hands with Janet taking the wheel. So I'm really looking forward to once again being completely immersed in my practice and forging new client relationships."

In April, Lawyers Weekly broke the story that the Adelaide-based firm had made a number of redundancies.