Several partner relocations have prompted a wave of management promotions in the Asia practice of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Current Beijing managing partner, Nicholas French, who will shortly relocate to London, will be succeeded by Shanghai managing partner Melissa Thomas. Corporate partner Heiner Braun will take up Thomas’ role in Shanghai.

The firm’s global co-head of international capital markets, Stephen Revell, and senior associate David Cotton, a capital markets lawyer, are both relocating to Hong Kong. Revell has been a partner at the firm since 1987, and formerly served as US managing partner in New York.

Japan managing partner James Wood will also be returning to London, and will be replaced by finance lawyer James Lawden, who has been a partner at Freshfields for over two decades.

These movements are the latest in what is set to be a year of changes for the firm in Asia. Earlier this year, the firm appointed Teresa Ko to chairman of its China practice, and announced several other high profile hires and relocations in the region.