DLA Piper has made a series of changes to the management of its practice groups and international operations.

Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) corporate chief Alastair Da Costa has been appointed as the firm's new managing director of Asia, replacing current head Nick Seddon in the role.

Da Costa, who will relocate to the region from the UK later this year, will oversee 400 staff across the firm's Asian network, which comprises offices in Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Seddon, who has held the position for more than four years, will leave DLA Piper next May to pursue other business interests outside the firm.

Beijing head Jingzhou Tao is also understood to have quit the firm.

Spanish chief Juan Picon will replace Da Costa as DLA Piper's new EMEA head of corporate with his regional management role filled in turn by Madrid finance and projects head Javier Lopez Anton.

Picon joined DLA Piper last year as part of a 35-lawyer team from the local arm of US firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey.

DLA Piper European chief Andrew Darwin commented: "Corporate is a key practice area for us and I am confident that, under Juan Picon's leadership, the group will continue to progress in the way that it has done under Alastair."

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