KPMG Names Christian Athanasoulas to Lead U.S. Legal Services

KPMG LLP announced on Feb. 27, 2026 that Christian Athanasoulas has been named Head of KPMG US Legal Services, a role charged with integrating and expanding the firm’s legal business services and its wholly‑owned U.S. law firm subsidiary, KPMG Law US, the firm said from New York, New York. The appointment tasks Athanasoulas with aligning strategy across KPMG LLP’s Legal Business Services practice and KPMG Law US as the firm positions the two components as a combined client offering.

Athanasoulas framed the mandate in the firm’s press release, saying, “Clients are looking for a more integrated way to manage legal work, leveraging legal advice when appropriate.” He added, “Through KPMG LLP's Legal Business Services and KPMG Law US, we're helping organizations access the legal services they need within one coordinated ecosystem — so work moves more seamlessly, efficiently, and at scale. That combination is unique in the market.”

The announcement lands as KPMG Law US marks its one-year anniversary and as market research cited in the release points to brisk demand for outsourced legal work. The press release cites Thomson Reuters Institute findings that “the alternative legal services provider (ALSP) market has seen sustained double-digit growth in recent years, with legal managed services among its fastest growing segments.” Separately, GoingConcern’s summary of Bloomberg Tax reporting notes that KPMG a year ago gained approval to offer legal services in Arizona, a development Bloomberg Tax framed as making the firm “the first Big Four accounting, tax, and consulting company to operate a US law firm.”

Athanasoulas joined KPMG in 2000 and has been with the firm for more than 25 years. His KPMG roles include U.S. Tax Practice Leader - Services and Global Head of International Tax and M&A Tax, and GoingConcern describes him as a Boston-based leader of the KPMG M&A tax practice. The press release says he has advised multinational corporations on complex cross-border transactions in more than 30 countries, and it notes that before joining KPMG he was a tax attorney at Sullivan & Worcester LLP.

Organizationally, KPMG will put Athanasoulas in charge of two explicit components: KPMG LLP’s Legal Business Services practice and KPMG Law US, the wholly owned U.S. law firm subsidiary named in the release. The firm presented the move as strategic integration of legal and advisory capabilities; the announcement was distributed via Newsfile Corp. / TMX Newsfile and republished on Yahoo Finance, where the copy was marked “This is a paid press release.”

The Newsfile distribution included media contact information for follow-up: Anna TenBroek, atenbroek@kpmg.com, 202-938-6230. KPMG’s boilerplate in the release reiterated firm messaging about talent and purpose, stating that “KPMG is widely recognized for being a great place to work and build a career” and asserting the firm’s approach to combining people, technology, and full-service capabilities.

KPMG’s naming of a long-tenured tax and M&A leader to run U.S. Legal Services signals a push to scale the integrated legal offering as regulatory approvals and ALSP market growth create new commercial room. The firm will now face the operational task Athanasoulas was hired to solve: folding KPMG Law US into a coordinated ecosystem with Legal Business Services and turning the one-year-old law firm into a measurable revenue and client-delivery engine.