Bird & Bird is reshaping its CEE management structure in preparation for the departure of the region's managing partner, Stephen Kines.

Kines is set to step down from his role as CEE head in May 2011 before leaving the firm completely in August, with a view to possibly launching his own wider emerging markets practice.

Following his departure, the role of CEE head will no longer exist at the firm and each office will have its own leadership team made up of a group of local partners working alongside a CEE management team.

The management team will be made up of CEE business operations and corporate development head Boris Doza, finance head Jana Hornakova, human resources head Tereza Cichova and marketing and business development head Pavla Brtnikova.

Kines said: "I joined Bird & Bird in 2008 to execute a three-year strategy for its CEE practice and we are now at the end of that strategy period and it is time for me to move on and hand over the reins to others.

"Our original idea for the strategy was that it should mark the end of the expatriate era and ensure that the firm's international offices are not managed by foreign lawyers but by the local teams."

Prior to joining Bird & Bird, Kines was a partner at Linklaters between 1999 and 2004 before setting up his own technology, media and telecommunications CEE boutique called Kines, which he left in 2007.

Bird & Bird launched all four of its CEE offices – in Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest – on 1 September 2008.