Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has selected US securities senior associate Doug Smith as its new corporate operations officer.

Smith takes over from senior associate George Swan, who will return to full-time fee earning in the financial institutions group after six months in the role.

US-qualified Smith joined Freshfields as an associate in 2003 and was promoted to senior associate last year.

He will hold the post, which was introduced by corporate head Mark Rawlinson almost a year ago, for the next six months – taking responsibility for communications within the department, representing the associate viewpoint, as well as getting involved in business strategy meetings. The aim is for those in the role to dedicate around 50% of their time to internal business and the other half to fee earning.

Smith is the third associate to take on the job and he expects to continue working on ongoing projects such as work allocation and secondments policies as well as developing a more formal approach to pro bono.