Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer corporate partner Simon Marchant (pictured) is to become the firm’s Asia regional managing partner, taking on a role vacated by Perry Noble in 2006.
Marchant, who is currently based in the firm’s London office, will relocate to Hong Kong later in the year and will travel around the firm’s Asian network over the next few months.
A spokesman for the firm said: “This role has been vacant since Perry Noble [who has now retired from the firm] became a finance practice group leader in 2006. That was done to recognise different market conditions.
“The focus since then has been on countries but the last few years have seen all offices an Asia increase market share and we recognised that there was a relevance for the Asia regional managing partner role again.”
Freshfields currently has 270 lawyers based in Asia, working across offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.
Marchant’s practice has seen him head the firm’s energy and natural resources sector group as well as the telecoms, media and technology sector group. He has also served on the firm’s partnership council for the past three years.
As reported on TheLawyer.com last year, Noble, who had been co-head of the firm’s financial institutions group, left the firm to pursue a life outside the law (18 April 2008).
