Shearman & Sterling has announced that Brussels managing partner and global competition head Matthew Readings will take over the leadership of the US firm's City base.

He succeeds Nick Buckworth, who has led the London office for the past seven years.

Readings (pictured) has served as global competition head and Brussels managing partner since last May, when he stepped into the posts vacated by Stephen Mavroghenis, who left for Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan with fellow partners Trevor Soames and Miguel Rato.

He will retain both roles alongside his London leadership responsibilities, splitting his time between both cities.

Readings said: "Nick has been doing this for seven years and it is good practice to rotate these management roles. What you can see in London is what you can see from the overall firm – strong revenue growth, and profitability has increased.

"We will continue to build out our transactional practices, and we also remain committed to Brussels, which is clearly important in a Brexit world. It is still a decent size, and we will be adding to it."

Readings will work closely with EMEA regional managing partner Marwan Elaraby and senior partner Dave Beveridge, who took up the top role at the US firm this March. Buckworth, meanwhile, will return to full-time practice and focus on his role as global head of finance.

Beveridge added: "Matthew will play a significant role in helping us drive our global strategy forward in London. London is key to our global approach providing an on-the-ground presence in one of the world's leading financial centres and the capability to advise international clients on English law. I look forward to working with Matthew to achieve our long-term growth ambitions in London."

Readings joined Shearman as a partner in 2006 from Hogan Lovells. His specialisms include cartel and abuse-of-dominance investigations, merger clearance procedures, and appeals to the European Courts in Luxembourg.

Beveridge – a capital markets specialist based in New York, who spent more than a decade in Shearman's London office – took over the reins as senior partner on 1 March for a six-year term. He succeeded Creighton Condon, who has returned to full-time M&A practice.

George Casey, Shearman's global head of M&A, and Adam Hakki, its global head of litigation, were named global co-managing partners, replacing Beveridge, who was the firm's sole global managing partner.

In March, the firm announced that global revenues had risen 0.6% to $917.5m during 2017, while profit per equity partner increased 7% to $2.3m. In 2016, London revenues rose by 14% to $169.7m, but the firm declined to disclose London office revenue for 2017.