Shearman & Sterling has appointed financial regulatory partner Barney Reynolds to its main policy board.

Reynolds replaces London office managing partner Anthony Ward on the board after an election process. Reynolds becomes the sole non-US representative on the board, which deals with policy and recommending new lateral partner hires. It also deals with issues such as partner compensation.

The policy board is chaired by senior partner Rohan Weerasinghe and consists of seven elected partners plus one partner appointed by the senior partner.

Reynolds heads up the firm's global financial institutions advisory and financial regulatory group from Shearman's London office. He joined Shearman in 2002 as a counsel from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, making partner the following January. He counts ICE, Citi and Morgan Stanley among his key clients.

In another change to the board, New York-based leader of the executive compensation and employee benefits group Linda Rappaport has been appointed for a four-year term, replacing Abu Dhabi capital markets partner Manuel Orillac.

Shearman's City arm posted a 12% revenue drop in 2009 to $99.7m (£69m) compared to a firmwide drop of 8%. Firmwide revenues were $801m (£555m).

Earlier this year, Shearman replaced its associate lockstep for lawyers in the UK, Asia and the Middle East with a merit-based pay system featuring biannual assessment against criteria including client relationships, legal and technical capabilities and interpersonal skills.